Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,950,000 shares, an increase of 20.1% from the April 30th total of 7,450,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,060,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 8.4 days. Approximately 21.2% of the company's stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on PRTA. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Prothena from $110.00 to $81.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered shares of Prothena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Prothena from $24.00 to $20.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 21st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Prothena from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of Prothena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $6.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Prothena currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $31.50.

Prothena Price Performance

NASDAQ PRTA traded up $0.35 on Friday, hitting $5.41. The stock had a trading volume of 1,250,560 shares, compared to its average volume of 708,396. The business's fifty day moving average price is $8.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.10. Prothena has a 52-week low of $4.32 and a 52-week high of $25.42. The stock has a market cap of $291.20 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.35 and a beta of -0.08.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.12) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.92) by ($0.20). Prothena had a negative return on equity of 22.67% and a negative net margin of 90.50%. The firm had revenue of $2.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.18 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($1.34) earnings per share. Prothena's revenue for the quarter was up 5500.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 833 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Prothena by 4,626.0% during the first 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 during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Prothena by 196.5% during the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,330 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $102,000 after buying an additional 4,858 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the first quarter worth $126,000. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena during the fourth quarter worth $145,000. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.