William Scully Buys 125,000 Shares of Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully bought 125,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $8.17 per share, for a total transaction of $1,021,250.00. Following the acquisition, the insider owned 1,061,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,668,370. This trade represents a 13.35% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Large shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

Prothena Stock Down 0.1%

PRTA stock opened at $8.25 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $431.89 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.93, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of -0.25. Prothena Corporation plc has a 12-month low of $4.95 and a 12-month high of $11.80. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.64.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PRTA. Citizens Jmp boosted their target price on shares of Prothena from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “market outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 6th. Citigroup reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell (d-)” rating to a “sell (e+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Prothena from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.75.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Rubric Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Prothena by 138.7% in the fourth quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 3,677,331 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $35,119,000 after purchasing an additional 2,136,958 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Prothena by 151.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,267,802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $21,658,000 after purchasing an additional 1,366,764 shares during the last quarter. Rangeley Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena in the second quarter valued at about $4,342,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena in the third quarter valued at about $6,386,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Prothena by 479.6% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 735,765 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,181,000 after purchasing an additional 608,814 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.