Chardan Capital Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Chardan Capital in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $40.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Chardan Capital’s target price indicates a potential upside of 162.30% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on PRTA. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $48.00 price target (down previously from $84.00) on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Prothena presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.50.

Prothena Price Performance

PRTA opened at $15.25 on Friday. Prothena has a 12 month low of $11.70 and a 12 month high of $31.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $820.60 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.15 and a beta of 0.08. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $14.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.83.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.02) by ($0.06). Prothena had a negative return on equity of 24.19% and a negative net margin of 98.86%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Prothena will post -2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of PRTA. Creative Planning acquired a new position in Prothena in the third quarter valued at $350,000. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Prothena by 63.7% in the 3rd quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 10,344 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $173,000 after purchasing an additional 4,026 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Prothena by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 125,747 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,104,000 after purchasing an additional 2,847 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Prothena in the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Prothena by 8.6% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 122,492 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,049,000 after acquiring an additional 9,666 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.08% of the company’s stock.

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.