Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock Price Up 4%

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA)’s stock price rose 4% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $20.63 and last traded at $20.45. Approximately 211,178 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 68% from the average daily volume of 665,562 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.66.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PRTA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. HC Wainwright reduced their price objective on Prothena from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, JMP Securities reduced their price objective on Prothena from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 9th. One equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $67.00.

Prothena Trading Up 10.5 %

The stock has a market cap of $1.17 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.40 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $21.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.53.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.34) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.21) by ($0.13). Prothena had a negative net margin of 193.17% and a negative return on equity of 30.48%. The company had revenue of $0.05 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.89) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Prothena Co. plc will post -4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Prothena by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,237,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $153,986,000 after acquiring an additional 417,338 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Prothena by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,594,102 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $94,270,000 after acquiring an additional 452,455 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Prothena by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,125,283 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,873,000 after acquiring an additional 54,728 shares during the period. Artal Group S.A. boosted its holdings in Prothena by 99.7% during the 1st quarter. Artal Group S.A. now owns 1,001,360 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $24,804,000 after acquiring an additional 500,000 shares during the period. Finally, Boxer Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Boxer Capital LLC now owns 665,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,166,000 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.