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

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the eight analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.75.

A number of brokerages have commented on PRTA. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings raised Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Citizens Jmp raised their price objective on Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th.

Insider Activity

In other Prothena news, major shareholder William P. Scully purchased 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $7.90 per share, with a total value of $158,000.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider owned 756,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,972,400. This represents a 2.72% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Anne Evans Kingston sold 7,662 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.47, for a total transaction of $64,897.14. Following the transaction, the insider owned 55,782 shares in the company, valued at $472,473.54. The trade was a 12.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders acquired 345,000 shares of company stock worth $3,097,250 over the last three months. Insiders own 10.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Prothena by 36.0% in the 1st quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $48,600,000 after buying an additional 1,322,669 shares in the last quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Prothena by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $15,372,000 after acquiring an additional 123,679 shares during the last quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Prothena by 93.0% during the 1st quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 207,403 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,016,000 after acquiring an additional 99,924 shares during the period. Penbrook Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Prothena during the 1st quarter worth $2,641,000. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Prothena by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 63,018 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $602,000 after acquiring an additional 6,299 shares during the last quarter. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Prothena Stock Up 2.6%

PRTA stock opened at $8.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $436.10 million, a P/E ratio of -2.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.30 and a beta of -0.31. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $9.42. Prothena has a 52 week low of $6.70 and a 52 week high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly 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 firm 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%. On average, analysts expect 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.