Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold” Rating

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday.

PRTA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Prothena from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Finally, Chardan Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.83.

Prothena Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of PRTA traded down $0.33 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $15.23. 354,021 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 376,580. Prothena has a 12 month low of $11.70 and a 12 month high of $31.03. The company has a market capitalization of $819.51 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.62 and a beta of 0.08. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $14.38 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.73.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.02) by ($0.06). Prothena had a negative return on equity of 22.67% and a negative net margin of 90.50%. The firm had revenue of $2.12 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.53 million. On average, analysts expect that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Two Sigma Investments LP increased its position in shares of Prothena by 265.4% during the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 38,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $532,000 after acquiring an additional 27,887 shares in the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Prothena by 24.8% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 77,672 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,076,000 after purchasing an additional 15,442 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 29.5% in the fourth quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 14,524 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 3,312 shares during the last quarter. Man Group plc raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 90.7% in the fourth quarter. Man Group plc now owns 77,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,072,000 after purchasing an additional 36,824 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 123,005 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,704,000 after purchasing an additional 10,467 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Company Profile

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.