Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.7778.

PRTA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 target price on Prothena in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Citigroup reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 14th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rubric Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Prothena by 36.0% during the first quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322,669 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,366,764 shares in the last quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 8.5% during the first quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $15,372,000 after buying an additional 123,679 shares in the last quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 49,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 43,586 shares in the last quarter. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Prothena Trading Up 4.5%

Shares of Prothena stock opened at $9.83 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $9.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.76. Prothena has a 52 week low of $4.32 and a 52 week high of $11.80. The stock has a market cap of $514.60 million, a PE ratio of -3.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of -0.23.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.91. The firm had revenue of $51.08 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.81 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 260.92% and a negative return on equity of 43.44%. On average, equities analysts predict that Prothena will post 0.18 EPS for the current fiscal 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.