William Scully Acquires 50,000 Shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully bought 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $9.43 per share, with a total value of $471,500.00. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 886,000 shares in the company, valued at $8,354,980. This trade represents a 5.98% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Prothena Trading Down 3.3%

Prothena stock traded down $0.30 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $8.89. The stock had a trading volume of 271,423 shares, compared to its average volume of 501,098. The firm has a market capitalization of $465.42 million, a P/E ratio of -3.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of -0.25. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $10.11 and its 200 day moving average is $9.74. Prothena Corporation plc has a one year low of $4.66 and a one year high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.91. The company had revenue of $51.08 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.81 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 260.92% and a negative return on equity of 43.44%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PRTA has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, March 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp increased their price objective on shares of Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prothena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.75.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Rubric Capital Management LP raised its position in Prothena by 138.7% in the 4th quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,677,331 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,958 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Prothena by 151.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,764 shares during the period. Rangeley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Prothena in the 2nd quarter worth about $4,342,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Prothena during the third quarter worth approximately $6,386,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of Prothena by 479.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 735,765 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,181,000 after acquiring an additional 608,814 shares during the period. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Prothena

Prothena Corporation plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapies for neurodegenerative and rare diseases driven by misfolded proteins. The company’s research focuses on immunotherapies and small molecules designed to target and clear disease-causing protein aggregates. Prothena leverages proprietary protein engineering and antibody discovery platforms to advance candidates through preclinical and clinical stages.

The company’s most advanced program is an antibody targeting aggregated alpha-synuclein for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease, currently in mid-stage clinical trials.