Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts rate Prothena “Moderate Buy”: Five analysts recommend buying the stock, one recommends a strong buy, while one rates it a hold and one a sell. The average 12-month price target is $24.57, well above the reported share price of $8.46.
• Prothena exceeded quarterly expectations, reporting a loss of $0.32 per share versus the estimated $0.39 loss and revenue of $1.01 million versus the $0.42 million consensus estimate. However, the company remains unprofitable, with an 80.68% negative net margin.
• Institutional investors own 97.08% of Prothena’s shares, while insiders own 10.40%; recent insider activity included a major shareholder purchasing 27,000 shares and the general counsel selling 8,386 shares.

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) has been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the eight research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $24.5714.

PRTA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen downgraded Prothena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 25th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Prothena from a "sell (e+)" rating to a "sell (d-)" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $30.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, July 24th.

Prothena Price Performance

PRTA stock opened at $8.46 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $8.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.42. The company has a market capitalization of $442.88 million, a P/E ratio of -10.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of -0.33. Prothena has a 12 month low of $7.73 and a 12 month high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $1.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.42 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 80.68% and a negative return on equity of 16.45%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Prothena will post 0.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Prothena news, General Counsel Michael Isaacs sold 8,386 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.47, for a total value of $71,029.42. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 35,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $302,760.15. This represents a 19.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder William P. Scully acquired 27,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 2nd. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $9.47 per share, for a total transaction of $255,690.00. Following the purchase, the insider directly owned 827,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,831,690. This trade represents a 3.38% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders own 10.40% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Engineers Gate Manager LP purchased a new position in Prothena in the second quarter valued at $404,000. Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena during the 2nd quarter worth about $148,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena during the 2nd quarter worth about $413,000. Great Lakes Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the 2nd quarter valued at about $281,000. Finally, Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Prothena by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. now owns 90,795 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $889,000 after purchasing an additional 2,251 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company's stock.

Prothena Company Profile

Prothena Corporation plc NASDAQ: PRTA is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing novel therapies for neurodegenerative and other protein-misfolding diseases. The company's research is based on targeting abnormal proteins and the biological processes associated with their accumulation in tissue.

Prothena's lead programs include birtamimab, an investigational antibody being developed for patients with AL amyloidosis, and prasinezumab, an investigational antibody targeting alpha-synuclein for Parkinson's disease.

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