Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have issued a hold recommendation, four have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.6667.

A number of research firms have weighed in on PRTA. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Monday, December 29th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Citizens Jmp set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Citigroup reaffirmed a “market outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $19.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research note on Monday, December 1st.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Prothena by 5.5% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 19,388 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $189,000 after buying an additional 1,014 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group increased its stake in Prothena by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 12,569 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 1,456 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in Prothena by 5.1% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 35,482 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $339,000 after acquiring an additional 1,709 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised 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 acquiring an additional 2,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtus Investment Advisers LLC boosted its position in shares of Prothena by 14.4% during the 4th quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers LLC now owns 25,679 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $245,000 after acquiring an additional 3,236 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Price Performance

Prothena stock opened at $9.52 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $512.46 million, a P/E ratio of -2.10, a PEG ratio of 0.62 and a beta of -0.24. Prothena has a one year low of $4.32 and a one year high of $13.52. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $9.16 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.56.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 19th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.44) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.45) by $0.01. The company had revenue of $0.02 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.67 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 65.89% and a negative net margin of 2,520.57%. Sell-side analysts expect that Prothena will post -4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Prothena

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.