Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Shares Gap Up Following Earnings Beat

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) shares gapped up prior to trading on Friday following a better than expected earnings announcement. The stock had previously closed at $19.68, but opened at $21.65. Prothena shares last traded at $23.02, with a volume of 32,047 shares traded.

The biotechnology company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.01) by $2.23. Prothena had a negative return on equity of 30.48% and a negative net margin of 193.17%. The company had revenue of $132.01 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.73 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($1.03) earnings per share. Prothena’s revenue was up 3184.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PRTA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $28.00 price objective on shares of Prothena in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. JMP Securities lowered their target price on Prothena from $85.00 to $83.00 and set a “market outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, HC Wainwright lowered their price target on Prothena from $90.00 to $84.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Prothena has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $66.00.

Institutional Trading of Prothena

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in Prothena by 182.1% during the 2nd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 863 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 265.9% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,544 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $56,000 after buying an additional 1,122 shares in the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of Prothena in the first quarter valued at about $96,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of Prothena by 13.1% in the second quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,236 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $211,000 after acquiring an additional 1,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Prothena in the 4th quarter worth about $222,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

Prothena Trading Up 17.3 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $23.90. The firm has a market cap of $1.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.08 and a beta of 0.21.

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.