Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Cut to “Sell” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Tuesday.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on PRTA. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Prothena from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Prothena from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $84.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Prothena from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Prothena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.86.

Prothena Price Performance

Shares of PRTA opened at $14.44 on Tuesday. Prothena has a 12-month low of $13.22 and a 12-month high of $41.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $777.02 million, a P/E ratio of -5.82 and a beta of 0.16. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $17.79 and its 200-day moving average is $20.16.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($1.18) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $0.97 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.22 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 24.19% and a negative net margin of 98.86%. The firm’s revenue was down 98.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Prothena will post -2.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Prothena

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in Prothena by 182.1% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 863 shares during the last quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Prothena by 63.7% during the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,344 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $173,000 after purchasing an additional 4,026 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Prothena during the 3rd quarter valued at $210,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its stake in shares of Prothena by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,236 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $211,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in Prothena in the third quarter worth $260,000. 97.08% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.