William Scully Buys 100,000 Shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully purchased 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $9.81 per share, with a total value of $981,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 836,000 shares in the company, valued at $8,201,160. The trade was a 13.59% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Large shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Prothena Stock Down 0.7%

NASDAQ PRTA traded down $0.07 on Tuesday, reaching $9.76. The company had a trading volume of 553,480 shares, compared to its average volume of 499,788. The stock has a market capitalization of $510.94 million, a P/E ratio of -3.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of -0.23. The company’s fifty day moving average is $10.00 and its 200 day moving average is $9.76. Prothena Corporation plc has a 52-week low of $4.32 and a 52-week high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The biotechnology company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.31) by $0.91. The business had revenue of $51.08 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $0.81 million. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 43.44% and a negative net margin of 260.92%. On average, research analysts expect that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.18 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Citizens Jmp upped their price objective on Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $19.00 price objective on Prothena in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price objective on Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Prothena presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.78.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Rubric Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Prothena by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322,669 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Prothena by 151.7% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,764 shares in the last quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Prothena by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $15,372,000 after purchasing an additional 123,679 shares in the last quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP lifted its holdings in Prothena by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Palo Alto Investors LP now owns 1,324,028 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $12,923,000 after purchasing an additional 49,275 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Prothena by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,063,069 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,154,000 after purchasing an additional 43,586 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Company Profile

Prothena Corporation plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapies for neurodegenerative and rare diseases driven by misfolded proteins. The company’s research focuses on immunotherapies and small molecules designed to target and clear disease-causing protein aggregates. Prothena leverages proprietary protein engineering and antibody discovery platforms to advance candidates through preclinical and clinical stages.

The company’s most advanced program is an antibody targeting aggregated alpha-synuclein for the potential treatment of Parkinson’s disease, currently in mid-stage clinical trials.