Insider Buying: Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Major Shareholder Acquires 125,000 Shares of Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully acquired 125,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 11th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $8.17 per share, for a total transaction of $1,021,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Prothena Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:PRTA traded down $0.01 on Friday, reaching $8.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 314,129 shares, compared to its average volume of 502,921. Prothena Corporation plc has a 52-week low of $4.95 and a 52-week high of $11.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $431.91 million, a P/E ratio of -2.93, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of -0.25. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $10.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.65.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 43.44% and a negative net margin of 260.92%. Equities analysts forecast that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 target price on Prothena in a report on Friday, March 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised their target price on shares of Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.75.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted 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 buying an additional 10,815 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prothena during the 4th quarter worth $100,000. PDT Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prothena during the 4th quarter worth $108,000. Voleon Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Prothena in the 2nd quarter valued at about $113,000. Finally, DRW Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the fourth quarter valued at about $114,000. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.