Brokerages Set Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Price Target at $52.29

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) has received a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the seven research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $52.29.

PRTA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Prothena from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $48.00 price target (down from $84.00) on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Chardan Capital initiated coverage on Prothena in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $40.00 price objective for the company. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PRTA. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 182.1% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 863 shares during the period. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in Prothena by 63.7% in the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,344 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $173,000 after purchasing an additional 4,026 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Prothena during the third quarter worth about $210,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its holdings in Prothena by 13.1% during the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,236 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Prothena in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $260,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company's stock.

Prothena Stock Down 6.9 %

PRTA stock traded down $1.03 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $13.85. 1,418,373 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 591,951. Prothena has a twelve month low of $11.70 and a twelve month high of $41.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $745.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.58 and a beta of 0.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $15.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.72.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.18) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $0.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.22 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 98.86% and a negative return on equity of 24.19%. Prothena's revenue was down 98.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Prothena will post -2.24 EPS for the current year.

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.