Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Shares Down 4.8% – What’s Next?

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA)’s share price was down 4.8% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $14.94 and last traded at $15.05. 77,997 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 80% from the average session volume of 387,240 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.81.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on PRTA. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 target price (down from $84.00) on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Bank of America lowered their target price on Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Chardan Capital started coverage on Prothena in a research note on Friday, December 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $40.00 price target on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prothena currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.50.

Prothena Trading Down 3.2 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $765.70 million, a P/E ratio of -5.74 and a beta of 0.10. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $14.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.74.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.18) by $0.08. Prothena had a negative net margin of 98.86% and a negative return on equity of 24.19%. The business had revenue of $0.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 98.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Prothena Co. plc will post -2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC increased its position in shares of Prothena by 110.2% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 95,222 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 49,916 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Prothena by 1,122.9% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 526,748 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $8,812,000 after buying an additional 483,673 shares in the last quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Prothena by 41.9% in the fourth quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC now owns 69,199 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $958,000 after buying an additional 20,450 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in Prothena by 14.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,178,788 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $69,911,000 after buying an additional 539,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Prothena in the fourth quarter worth about $724,000. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.