Prothena’s (PRTA) “Sector Perform” Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $28.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 40.21% from the company’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on PRTA. JMP Securities dropped their target price on shares of Prothena from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, HC Wainwright dropped their target price on shares of Prothena from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. One research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $66.00.

Prothena Stock Down 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ PRTA traded down $0.80 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $19.97. The stock had a trading volume of 24,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 681,844. The company has a market cap of $1.07 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.14 and a beta of 0.24. The business’s 50 day moving average is $21.24 and its 200-day moving average is $27.09. Prothena has a 52 week low of $18.69 and a 52 week high of $73.14.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.34) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.21) by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $0.05 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.75 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 30.48% and a negative net margin of 193.17%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.89) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Prothena will post -4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Prothena by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 4,237,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $153,986,000 after acquiring an additional 417,338 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Prothena by 21.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,594,102 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $94,270,000 after purchasing an additional 452,455 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Prothena by 5.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,125,283 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,873,000 after buying an additional 54,728 shares during the period. Artal Group S.A. lifted its position in Prothena by 99.7% in the first quarter. Artal Group S.A. now owns 1,001,360 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,804,000 after buying an additional 500,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boxer Capital LLC boosted its stake in Prothena by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Boxer Capital LLC now owns 665,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,166,000 after buying an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

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.