Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Short Interest Update

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totaling 6,584,532 shares, an increase of 40.1% from the December 15th total of 4,699,126 shares. Approximately 13.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 827,377 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 8.0 days. Based on an average trading volume of 827,377 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 8.0 days. Approximately 13.6% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Prospera Financial Services Inc bought a new stake in Prothena during the second quarter worth about $61,000. CWM LLC lifted its position in Prothena by 650.1% in the 3rd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 10,246 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying an additional 8,880 shares during the last quarter. Inscription Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Prothena in the third quarter worth approximately $102,000. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in Prothena during the third quarter valued at approximately $119,000. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 13.1% during the third quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 12,569 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 1,456 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PRTA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Prothena from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “market outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (e+)” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Monday, December 29th. Chardan Capital raised shares of Prothena to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Prothena from $15.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.60.

Prothena Stock Performance

PRTA traded up $0.09 on Friday, reaching $9.35. The company had a trading volume of 761,476 shares, compared to its average volume of 626,151. Prothena has a 52-week low of $4.32 and a 52-week high of $16.67. The company has a market cap of $503.31 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of -0.09. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $8.95.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.67) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.60) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $2.42 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.64 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 65.89% and a negative net margin of 2,379.59%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Prothena Company Profile

Prothena Corporation plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapies for neurodegenerative and rare diseases driven by misfolded proteins. The company’s research focuses on immunotherapies and small molecules designed to target and clear disease-causing protein aggregates. Prothena leverages proprietary protein engineering and antibody discovery platforms to advance candidates through preclinical and clinical stages.

The company’s most advanced program is an antibody targeting aggregated alpha-synuclein for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease, currently in mid-stage clinical trials.