Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Reaches New 52-Week Low – What’s Next?

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) hit a new 52-week low on Friday . The stock traded as low as $15.22 and last traded at $15.24, with a volume of 84680 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $16.10.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on PRTA. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer lowered their price target on Prothena from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, August 14th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America cut their price target on shares of Prothena from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $61.86.

Prothena Trading Down 13.0 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $753.86 million, a PE ratio of -5.65 and a beta of 0.16. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $18.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.34.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 12th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.18) by $0.08. The business had revenue of $0.97 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 98.86% and a negative return on equity of 24.19%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 98.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Prothena Co. plc will post -2.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 110.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 95,222 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,592,000 after buying an additional 49,916 shares during the period. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in Prothena by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 17,531 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $293,000 after acquiring an additional 739 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd bought a new stake in Prothena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $260,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Prothena by 14.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,178,788 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $69,911,000 after purchasing an additional 539,359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PDT Partners LLC boosted its position in Prothena by 7.7% during the third quarter. PDT Partners LLC now owns 110,654 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,851,000 after purchasing an additional 7,946 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.