Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $52.29.

PRTA has been the topic of several research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Monday, September 30th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective (down from $84.00) on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, December 20th. Chardan Capital assumed coverage on Prothena in a report on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $40.00 target price for the company. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th.

Prothena Stock Performance

Shares of PRTA opened at $13.87 on Wednesday. Prothena has a 1 year low of $11.70 and a 1 year high of $41.54. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $18.63. The company has a market capitalization of $746.33 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.59 and a beta of 0.10.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.18) by $0.08. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 24.19% and a negative net margin of 98.86%. The firm had revenue of $0.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 98.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Prothena will post -2.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRTA. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in Prothena by 110.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 95,222 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,592,000 after buying an additional 49,916 shares in the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC boosted its position in Prothena by 42.3% during the 2nd quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 1,560,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,198,000 after acquiring an additional 464,000 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of Prothena by 1,122.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 526,748 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $8,812,000 after purchasing an additional 483,673 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Prothena during the second quarter valued at $905,000. Finally, Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Prothena during the third quarter valued at $816,000. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Prothena Company Profile

Prothena Corporation plc, a late-stage clinical biotechnology company, focuses on discovery and development of novel therapies to treat diseases caused by protein dysregulation in the United States. The company is involved in developing birtamimab, an investigational humanized antibody that is in Phase III clinical trial for the treatment of AL amyloidosis; Prasinezumab, a humanized monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and other related synucleinopathies which is in Phase IIb clinical trial; NNC6019 that is in Phase lI clinical trial for the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis; and BMS-986446 and PRX012, which is in Phase I clinical trial for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.