William Scully Purchases 50,000 Shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully acquired 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 20th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $8.79 per share, for a total transaction of $439,500.00. Following the acquisition, the insider directly owned 800,000 shares in the company, valued at $7,032,000. This represents a 6.67% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Prothena Price Performance

Shares of PRTA stock traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $9.44. 215,695 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 517,062. The company has a market cap of $494.18 million, a P/E ratio of -11.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of -0.30. The company’s 50 day moving average is $8.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.37. Prothena Corporation plc has a 1 year low of $7.73 and a 1 year high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.07. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 16.45% and a negative net margin of 80.68%.The firm had revenue of $1.01 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $0.42 million. As a group, analysts predict that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Rubric Capital Management LP increased its stake in shares of Prothena by 138.7% during the 4th quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,677,331 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,958 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Prothena by 151.7% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $21,658,000 after buying an additional 1,366,764 shares in the last quarter. Rangeley Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Prothena during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,342,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in Prothena during the 3rd quarter valued at $6,386,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Prothena by 479.6% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 735,765 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,181,000 after buying an additional 608,814 shares in the last quarter. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PRTA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, July 24th. Citizens Jmp upped their target price on shares of Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Prothena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 25th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Finally, UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.75.

About Prothena

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.