Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) have been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight analysts that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $23.75.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, March 13th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Prothena news, major shareholder William P. Scully acquired 125,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $8.17 per share, for a total transaction of $1,021,250.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider directly owned 1,061,000 shares in the company, valued at $8,668,370. The trade was a 13.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders have bought a total of 325,000 shares of company stock worth $2,939,250 in the last quarter. 10.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of Prothena by 571.0% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 12,709 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $77,000 after purchasing an additional 10,815 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $100,000. PDT Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Voleon Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the second quarter valued at approximately $113,000. Finally, DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $114,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Stock Performance

Shares of Prothena stock opened at $8.25 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $431.89 million, a PE ratio of -2.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.32 and a beta of -0.25. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.64. Prothena has a 1 year low of $4.95 and a 1 year high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $51.08 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.81 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 260.92% and a negative return on equity of 43.44%. On average, equities analysts predict that Prothena will post 0.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Prothena Company Profile

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.