Chardan Capital Reaffirms "Buy" Rating for Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)

Key Points

• Chardan Capital has reiterated a "buy" rating on Prothena (PRTA) with a price target of $18.00, indicating a potential upside of 110.28% from its current price.
• Despite the positive rating from Chardan, several analysts have downgraded Prothena's stock recently, resulting in an average rating of "Hold" with a price target of $30.25.
• Prothena reported a significant earnings miss, with a loss of ($1.86) per share, well below the consensus estimate of ($1.11), highlighting ongoing challenges for the biotechnology firm.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by research analysts at Chardan Capital in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $18.00 price objective on the biotechnology company's stock. Chardan Capital's price target would indicate a potential upside of 114.93% from the stock's previous close.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on PRTA. Oppenheimer lowered shares of Prothena from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Prothena from $18.00 to $10.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. Piper Sandler decreased 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. JMP Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Prothena from $78.00 to $29.00 and set a "market outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Bank of America reissued an "underperform" rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $19.75.

Prothena Trading Up 2.1%

NASDAQ:PRTA traded up $0.18 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $8.38. 498,941 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,060,951. The stock has a market capitalization of $450.83 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.48 and a beta of -0.04. Prothena has a twelve month low of $4.32 and a twelve month high of $22.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $7.14 and a 200 day moving average of $8.89.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 4th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.86) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($1.11) by ($0.75). Prothena had a negative net margin of 2,929.30% and a negative return on equity of 62.17%. The business had revenue of $4.42 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.36 million. Equities research analysts predict that Prothena will post -4.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PRTA. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Prothena by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 42,846 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $593,000 after acquiring an additional 1,632 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $182,000. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of Prothena by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 105,338 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $1,458,000 after acquiring an additional 10,116 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Prothena by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 864,833 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $11,980,000 after buying an additional 10,783 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its holdings in Prothena by 208.3% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 16,826 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $233,000 after buying an additional 11,369 shares during the period. 97.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.