Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Short Interest Down 50.7% in May

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,410,000 shares, a decrease of 50.7% from the May 15th total of 8,950,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,350,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.3 days. Approximately 10.4% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Prothena by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC now owns 5,148 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $71,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 4,626.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,002 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 5,875 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 196.5% in the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,330 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $102,000 after buying an additional 4,858 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena in the first quarter valued at approximately $126,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new position in Prothena during the fourth quarter worth $145,000. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Prothena Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of Prothena stock traded up $0.04 on Tuesday, hitting $5.70. The stock had a trading volume of 2,941,335 shares, compared to its average volume of 735,019. The company's 50 day moving average price is $7.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.67. The stock has a market cap of $306.81 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.48 and a beta of -0.08. Prothena has a 52-week low of $4.32 and a 52-week high of $25.42.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.12) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.92) by ($0.20). The business had revenue of $2.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.18 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 22.67% and a negative net margin of 90.50%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5500.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($1.34) EPS. Analysts predict that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PRTA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer cut Prothena from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of Prothena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Prothena from $110.00 to $81.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Prothena from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Prothena from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Prothena Company 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.