Investors Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 8,185 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 1,210% compared to the typical volume of 625 put options.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

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

Prothena Stock Performance

Prothena stock traded up $0.10 during trading on Thursday, hitting $4.70. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,378,265 shares, compared to its average volume of 681,430. The stock's fifty day moving average is $9.04 and its 200 day moving average is $12.57. Prothena has a 1-year low of $4.32 and a 1-year high of $25.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $252.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.04 and a beta of 0.11.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PRTA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Chardan Capital lowered their price objective on shares of Prothena from $40.00 to $18.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of Prothena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $6.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Prothena from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 24th. Cantor Fitzgerald lowered Prothena from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, HC Wainwright dropped their price target on Prothena from $30.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. One investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price 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.