Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Raised to “Hold” at StockNews.com

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday.

PRTA has been the topic of several other research reports. Oppenheimer lifted 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. Chardan Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, February 21st. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $48.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, February 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $45.83.

Prothena Trading Down 3.9 %

Shares of Prothena stock opened at $14.63 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $787.23 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.36 and a beta of 0.08. Prothena has a 1 year low of $11.70 and a 1 year high of $31.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.68.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 company had revenue of $2.12 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.53 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Prothena will post -4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PRTA. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Prothena by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC now owns 5,148 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 833 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Prothena by 196.5% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $102,000 after acquiring an additional 4,858 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in Prothena during the 4th quarter worth approximately $145,000. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Prothena during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $149,000. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in Prothena by 10.3% in the fourth quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 11,409 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065 shares in the last quarter. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Prothena

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.