Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Upgraded to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on PRTA. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Prothena from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prothena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.00.

Prothena Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ PRTA opened at $14.55 on Monday. Prothena has a fifty-two week low of $11.70 and a fifty-two week high of $31.03. The stock has a market cap of $782.92 million, a PE ratio of -6.33 and a beta of 0.08. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $14.45 and a 200-day moving average of $16.67.

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). The firm had revenue of $2.12 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.53 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 22.67% and a negative net margin of 90.50%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PRTA. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Prothena by 22.8% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,130,876 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $71,063,000 after buying an additional 952,088 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Prothena by 11.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,403,838 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $19,443,000 after purchasing an additional 144,737 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Prothena by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 864,833 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $11,980,000 after purchasing an additional 10,783 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 84.3% in the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 746,177 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,335,000 after purchasing an additional 341,274 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boxer Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Prothena in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,556,000. 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.