Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Earns "Buy" Rating from Chardan Capital

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 reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Chardan Capital in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $18.00 price objective on the biotechnology company's stock. Chardan Capital's price objective points to a potential upside of 119.51% from the stock's current price.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on PRTA. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Prothena from $18.00 to $10.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 5th. JMP Securities lowered their price objective on Prothena from $78.00 to $29.00 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Prothena from $110.00 to $81.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered Prothena from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $6.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer lowered Prothena from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $22.00.

Prothena Stock Down 0.5%

NASDAQ PRTA traded down $0.04 during trading on Thursday, hitting $8.20. 903,119 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,183,799. The company has a market capitalization of $441.41 million, a P/E ratio of -1.45 and a beta of -0.04. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $7.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $8.93. Prothena has a 12-month low of $4.32 and a 12-month high of $22.83.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Prothena by 1.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,199,528 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $64,344,000 after purchasing an additional 68,652 shares during the last quarter. Armistice Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Prothena by 1.8% during the second quarter. Armistice Capital LLC now owns 2,236,000 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $13,573,000 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the last quarter. Siren L.L.C. lifted its position in shares of Prothena by 16.7% during the first quarter. Siren L.L.C. now owns 1,283,555 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $15,884,000 after purchasing an additional 183,715 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its position in shares of Prothena by 116.2% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 1,181,087 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $7,169,000 after purchasing an additional 634,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Prothena during the second quarter worth $6,176,000. 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.