Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Trading Down 4.8% – Here’s What Happened

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) dropped 4.8% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $14.94 and last traded at $15.05. 77,997 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 80% from the average daily volume of 387,240 shares. The stock had previously closed at $15.81.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on PRTA. Chardan Capital assumed coverage on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, December 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $40.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com lowered Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $48.00 price objective (down from $84.00) on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.50.

Prothena Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $765.70 million, a PE ratio of -5.74 and a beta of 0.10. The business has a 50-day moving average of $14.43 and a 200 day moving average of $17.74.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRTA. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of Prothena by 110.2% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 95,222 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after purchasing an additional 49,916 shares during 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 third 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 acquiring an additional 483,673 shares during the last quarter. Duncan Williams Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 20,450 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 14.8% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,178,788 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $69,911,000 after acquiring an additional 539,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Prothena during the 4th quarter valued at about $724,000. Hedge funds and other 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.