Insider Selling: Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Sells 85,062 Shares of Stock

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Stephen Bloch sold 85,062 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.44, for a total transaction of $6,076,829.28. Following the sale, the director directly owned 980,073 shares in the company, valued at $70,016,415.12. This trade represents a 7.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Liquidia Stock Performance

NASDAQ LQDA traded down $3.88 on Tuesday, hitting $67.92. 2,323,237 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,746,808. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 2.22 and a quick ratio of 2.03. The business’s fifty day moving average is $50.54 and its 200 day moving average is $41.24. Liquidia Corporation has a 52 week low of $11.85 and a 52 week high of $73.22. The company has a market capitalization of $6.04 billion, a PE ratio of 485.18 and a beta of 0.57.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 46.82%. The firm had revenue of $132.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.44 million. Liquidia’s revenue for the quarter was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liquidia

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of Liquidia by 41.9% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia in the third quarter valued at about $30,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia in the third quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. 64.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on LQDA. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. HC Wainwright upped their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.29.

About Liquidia

Liquidia Technologies, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The company leverages its proprietary PRINT® (Particle Replication In Non-wetting Templates) platform to engineer precisely shaped and sized drug particles, with the goal of improving delivery, efficacy and safety profiles. By controlling particle characteristics at the nanoscale, Liquidia seeks to enhance respiratory and other therapies that depend on targeted delivery.

The company’s lead product candidate, LIQ861, is a dry powder formulation of treprostinil designed for inhalation in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).