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

HC Wainwright reissued their buy rating on shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. HC Wainwright currently has a $48.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on PRTA. Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Chardan Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prothena currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.83.

Prothena Price Performance

NASDAQ PRTA opened at $15.56 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.80. Prothena has a 52 week low of $11.70 and a 52 week high of $31.03.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.02) by ($0.06). Prothena had a negative return on equity of 22.67% and a negative net margin of 90.50%. The business had revenue of $2.12 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.53 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Prothena will post -4.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Two Sigma Investments LP lifted its position in shares of Prothena by 265.4% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 38,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 27,887 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Prothena by 24.8% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 77,672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,076,000 after purchasing an additional 15,442 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Prothena by 29.5% during the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 14,524 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $201,000 after purchasing an additional 3,312 shares during the last quarter. Man Group plc grew its holdings in Prothena by 90.7% during the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 77,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 36,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its position in shares of Prothena by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 123,005 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,704,000 after purchasing an additional 10,467 shares during the period. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.