Short Interest in Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) Increases By 28.1%

Prothena Co. plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,790,000 shares, a growth of 28.1% from the September 30th total of 5,300,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 442,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 15.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PRTA. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of Prothena by 182.1% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,337 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 863 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in Prothena by 265.9% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,544 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 1,122 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Prothena during the 1st quarter worth $96,000. Focused Wealth Management Inc boosted its position in Prothena by 7,751.9% in the 1st quarter. Focused Wealth Management Inc now owns 10,129 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $251,000 after buying an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in shares of Prothena by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 10,236 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $211,000 after buying an additional 1,186 shares during the period. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Prothena from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on Prothena from $28.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 9th. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Prothena from $66.00 to $62.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Prothena from $33.00 to $31.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $84.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $61.86.

Prothena Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of PRTA stock traded down $0.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $18.08. 481,328 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 589,422. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $19.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $972.34 million, a P/E ratio of -18.08 and a beta of 0.17. Prothena has a fifty-two week low of $15.30 and a fifty-two week high of $41.54.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The biotechnology company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.01) by $2.23. Prothena had a negative net margin of 23.44% and a negative return on equity of 9.00%. The firm had revenue of $132.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.73 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($1.03) EPS. The business’s revenue was up 3184.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Prothena will post -2.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.