Prothena Corporation plc $PRTA Stock Holdings Cut by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

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 shares of Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Free Report) by 43.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 43,978 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after selling 33,694 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC owned about 0.08% of Prothena worth $544,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Prothena by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,199,528 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $64,344,000 after buying an additional 68,652 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Prothena by 14.6% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 34,836 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 4,437 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Prothena in the first quarter valued at $1,856,000. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC boosted its holdings in Prothena by 29.6% in the first quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 14,512 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $180,000 after acquiring an additional 3,315 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DCF Advisers LLC boosted its holdings in Prothena by 88.4% in the first quarter. DCF Advisers LLC now owns 195,000 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $2,413,000 after acquiring an additional 91,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on PRTA shares. Oppenheimer cut Prothena from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. HC Wainwright restated a "buy" rating and set a $14.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Prothena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $6.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. JMP Securities reduced their price objective on Prothena from $29.00 to $11.00 and set a "market outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Chardan Capital reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $18.00 price target on shares of Prothena in a research note on Thursday, August 28th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Prothena currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $19.75.

Prothena Stock Down 2.0%

Shares of NASDAQ:PRTA traded down $0.17 during trading on Monday, hitting $8.38. 59,257 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,059,128. The stock has a market capitalization of $451.10 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.48 and a beta of -0.04. The business's fifty day moving average is $7.32 and its 200-day moving average is $8.72. Prothena Corporation plc has a one year low of $4.32 and a one year high of $22.71.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last posted its 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 company had revenue of $4.42 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.36 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 2,929.30% and a negative return on equity of 62.17%. On average, analysts forecast that Prothena Corporation plc will post -4.04 EPS for the current year.

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.