Insider Buying: Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Major Shareholder Purchases 20,000 Shares of Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully acquired 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was bought at an average price of $7.90 per share, with a total value of $158,000.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 756,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,972,400. This represents a 2.72% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Major shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Prothena Stock Performance

Shares of Prothena stock traded up $0.39 during trading on Thursday, hitting $8.88. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 282,900 shares, compared to its average volume of 502,874. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $9.89 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.59. The company has a market capitalization of $464.87 million, a PE ratio of -3.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of -0.25. Prothena Corporation plc has a 52 week low of $5.64 and a 52 week high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.31) by $0.91. The company had revenue of $51.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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, analysts predict that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.18 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Prothena by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 19,388 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,014 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 12,569 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 1,456 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 35,482 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 1,709 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 81,515 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $779,000 after buying an additional 2,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtus Investment Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 14.4% in the 4th quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 25,679 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $245,000 after buying an additional 3,236 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PRTA. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, March 13th. Citigroup reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.75.

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.