Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) Stock: Insider William Scully Acquires 100,000 Shares

Prothena Corporation plc (NASDAQ:PRTA) major shareholder William Scully acquired 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $8.35 per share, with a total value of $835,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 1,027,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,575,450. This represents a 10.79% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Large shareholders that own 10% or more of a company’s stock are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

Prothena Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of PRTA stock opened at $8.35 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $437.12 million, a PE ratio of -9.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of -0.29. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $9.31. Prothena Corporation plc has a 52 week low of $7.73 and a 52 week high of $11.80.

Prothena (NASDAQ:PRTA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.39) by $0.07. Prothena had a negative net margin of 80.68% and a negative return on equity of 16.45%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $0.42 million. Equities research analysts expect that Prothena Corporation plc will post 0.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in PRTA. Rubric Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Prothena by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Rubric Capital Management LP now owns 5,000,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $48,600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,322,669 shares in the last quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Prothena by 8.5% during the 1st quarter. ADAR1 Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $15,372,000 after buying an additional 123,679 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Prothena by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 782,603 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,606,000 after buying an additional 7,396 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in Prothena by 39.5% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 607,515 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,905,000 after buying an additional 172,000 shares during the period. Finally, Penbrook Management LLC acquired a new position in Prothena in the 1st quarter worth $2,641,000. 97.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on PRTA shares. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $30.00 target price on shares of Prothena in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered Prothena from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 25th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Prothena in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Prothena from a “sell (e+)” rating to a “sell (d-)” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.57.

About Prothena

Prothena Corporation plc is a clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing therapies for diseases caused by protein misfolding or abnormal protein accumulation. Its research programs target neurological and systemic disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and transthyretin amyloidosis.

The company’s pipeline has included PRX012, an investigational next-generation antibody targeting amyloid beta for Alzheimer’s disease; prasinezumab, an anti-alpha-synuclein antibody being developed for Parkinson’s disease through a collaboration with Roche; and birtamimab, an investigational treatment designed to target misfolded light chains associated with AL amyloidosis.