William Scully Acquires 100,000 Shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully acquired 100,000 shares of Prothena stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 18th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $8.43 per share, for a total transaction of $843,000.00. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 927,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,814,610. The trade was a 12.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Major shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Prothena Price Performance

PRTA traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $8.51. The stock had a trading volume of 360,687 shares, compared to its average volume of 507,159. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $445.50 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -10.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.02 and a beta of -0.33. Prothena Corporation plc has a 1-year low of $7.73 and a 1-year high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.39) by $0.07. The company had revenue of $1.01 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.42 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 80.68% and a negative return on equity of 16.45%. As a group, research analysts expect that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on PRTA. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $30.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, July 24th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Prothena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.57.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. ProShare Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Prothena during the fourth quarter worth about $100,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA bought a new stake in Prothena in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $146,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Prothena during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $148,000. Sei Investments Co. acquired a new position in Prothena during the 1st quarter worth approximately $168,000. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Prothena by 55.1% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 28,128 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $269,000 after acquiring an additional 9,991 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

About Prothena

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ: PRTA) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for neurodegenerative and other protein-misfolding diseases. The company’s research is based on targeting abnormal proteins and the biological processes associated with their accumulation in tissue.

Prothena’s lead programs include birtamimab, an investigational antibody being developed for patients with AL amyloidosis, and prasinezumab, an investigational antibody targeting alpha-synuclein for Parkinson’s disease.