HC Wainwright Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by stock analysts at HC Wainwright in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $48.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 214.75% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on PRTA. Chardan Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com downgraded Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.50.

Prothena Price Performance

Prothena stock opened at $15.25 on Friday. Prothena has a one year low of $11.70 and a one year high of $31.03. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $14.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $820.60 million, a P/E ratio of -6.15 and a beta of 0.08.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.02) by ($0.06). Prothena had a negative return on equity of 24.19% and a negative net margin of 98.86%. Sell-side analysts expect that Prothena will post -2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Creative Planning bought a new position in shares of Prothena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $350,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 63.7% during the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,344 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 4,026 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 125,747 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,104,000 after purchasing an additional 2,847 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP bought a new position in shares of Prothena during the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 122,492 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,049,000 after purchasing an additional 9,666 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

About Prothena

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.