Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Price Target Raised to $20.00

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) had its price objective hoisted by Citizens Jmp from $19.00 to $20.00 in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a market outperform rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 price target on Prothena in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.78.

Prothena Price Performance

NASDAQ PRTA opened at $10.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $561.72 million, a PE ratio of -3.80, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.38 and a beta of -0.23. Prothena has a 52 week low of $4.32 and a 52 week high of $11.80. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $9.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.81.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.91. The business had revenue of $51.08 million for 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%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Prothena will post 0.69 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its position in Prothena by 138.7% during the fourth quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,677,331 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $35,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,958 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in Prothena by 151.7% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $21,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,764 shares during the last quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP lifted its position in Prothena by 3.9% during the third quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP now owns 1,324,028 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $12,923,000 after purchasing an additional 49,275 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Prothena by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,063,069 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $10,154,000 after purchasing an additional 43,586 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in Prothena by 11.6% during the fourth quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 978,011 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $9,340,000 after purchasing an additional 101,483 shares during the last quarter. 97.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.