Rafferty Asset Management LLC Decreases Stake in Prothena Corporation plc $PRTA

Key Points

• Rafferty Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in Prothena Corporation plc by 43.4% in Q1, leaving it with 43,978 shares valued at approximately $544,000.
• Hedge funds and institutional investors collectively own 97.08% of Prothena's stock, with significant changes in positions from several firms during the first quarter.
• Prothena's latest quarterly earnings showed a loss of ($1.86) per share, missing estimates significantly, while the company anticipates a projected EPS of -4.04 for the current fiscal year.

Rafferty Asset Management LLC lessened its stake in Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Free Report) by 43.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 43,978 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after selling 33,694 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC owned 0.08% of Prothena worth $544,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in PRTA. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Prothena by 4,626.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,002 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 5,875 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Prothena in the 1st quarter valued at about $126,000. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Prothena in the 4th quarter valued at about $173,000. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Prothena by 29.6% in the 1st quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 14,512 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $180,000 after buying an additional 3,315 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the 4th quarter worth about $182,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.08% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PRTA. Chardan Capital reissued a "buy" rating and set a $18.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Oppenheimer lowered Prothena from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. JMP Securities cut their target price on Prothena from $29.00 to $11.00 and set a "market outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Bank of America reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $19.75.

Prothena Stock Up 0.9%

PRTA opened at $8.27 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $445.17 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.47 and a beta of -0.04. Prothena Corporation plc has a 52 week low of $4.32 and a 52 week high of $22.83. The business's 50 day moving average is $7.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $8.89.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.86) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.11) by ($0.75). The firm had revenue of $4.42 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 62.17% and a negative net margin of 2,929.30%. Equities analysts expect that Prothena Corporation plc will post -4.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Prothena 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.

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