Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Price Target to $20.00

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) had its price objective lowered by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada from $24.00 to $20.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “sector perform” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 29.11% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Chardan Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $40.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Prothena from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 7th. StockNews.com cut shares of Prothena from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their target price on shares of Prothena from $26.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Prothena presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.83.

Prothena Price Performance

Prothena stock traded up $0.24 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $15.49. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 361,487 shares, compared to its average volume of 365,855. The stock has a market cap of $833.57 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.24 and a beta of 0.08. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $14.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.83. Prothena has a 12 month low of $11.70 and a 12 month high of $31.03.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.08) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.02) by ($0.06). The firm had revenue of $2.12 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.53 million. Prothena had a negative net margin of 98.86% and a negative return on equity of 24.19%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Prothena will post -2.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Prothena

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Prothena by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC now owns 5,148 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 833 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Prothena by 196.5% during the 4th quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 7,330 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $102,000 after purchasing an additional 4,858 shares during the last quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena during the 4th quarter valued at about $145,000. Purkiss Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Prothena during the 4th quarter valued at about $149,000. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Prothena by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 11,409 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $158,000 after purchasing an additional 1,065 shares during the last quarter. 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.