Analysts Set Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) PT at $52.29

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $52.29.

A number of research analysts recently commented on PRTA shares. StockNews.com downgraded Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Monday, September 30th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price objective (down from $84.00) on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Chardan Capital assumed coverage on Prothena in a report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $40.00 target price on the stock.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Prothena by 13.4% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 165,423 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $3,414,000 after acquiring an additional 19,578 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Prothena by 13.1% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,236 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in shares of Prothena by 182.1% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 863 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers grew its holdings in shares of Prothena by 9.9% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 69,756 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,440,000 after purchasing an additional 6,256 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Prothena during the second quarter worth about $905,000. Institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Trading Up 7.6 %

Shares of PRTA opened at $14.15 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $761.40 million, a PE ratio of -5.71 and a beta of 0.10. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $15.12 and its 200-day moving average is $18.53. Prothena has a 12 month low of $11.70 and a 12 month high of $41.54.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.18) by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $0.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 24.19% and a negative net margin of 98.86%. The company’s revenue was down 98.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Prothena will post -2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.