Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Short Interest Up 20.1% in May

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in 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. Currently, 21.2% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Chardan Capital reduced their price objective on Prothena from $40.00 to $18.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Prothena from $110.00 to $81.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Oppenheimer cut shares of Prothena from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Prothena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, HC Wainwright dropped their target price on Prothena from $30.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $31.50.

Prothena Stock Performance

Prothena stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $4.88. 1,140,960 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 697,851. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $8.37 and a 200-day moving average price of $12.25. The stock has a market cap of $262.68 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.12 and a beta of 0.11. Prothena has a one year low of $4.32 and a one year high of $25.42.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 company had revenue of $2.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.18 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.34) earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 5500.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Prothena will post -4.04 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of PRTA. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 22.8% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,130,876 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $71,063,000 after acquiring an additional 952,088 shares in the last quarter. Boxer Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Prothena in the fourth quarter worth $9,556,000. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in Prothena by 84.3% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 746,177 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $10,335,000 after buying an additional 341,274 shares during the period. Finepoint Capital LP grew its stake in shares of Prothena by 51.6% during the fourth quarter. Finepoint Capital LP now owns 657,071 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $9,100,000 after buying an additional 223,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Prothena by 93.7% in the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 387,350 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $5,365,000 after buying an additional 187,364 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.08% of the company's stock.

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.

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