Wellington Management Group LLP Reduces Stock Holdings in Liquidia Corporation $LQDA

Wellington Management Group LLP lowered its stake in Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 176,135 shares of the company’s stock after selling 22,925 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Liquidia were worth $14,043,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in LQDA. Globeflex Capital L P purchased a new stake in shares of Liquidia in the 2nd quarter worth about $175,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,694,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB purchased a new position in shares of Liquidia during the second quarter valued at about $1,993,000. Fulcrum Equity Management bought a new position in Liquidia in the second quarter worth about $399,000. Finally, Fluent Financial LLC bought a new position in Liquidia in the second quarter worth about $287,000. 64.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on LQDA. Wall Street Zen cut Liquidia from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 27th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Friday, July 17th. BTIG Research raised their target price on Liquidia from $109.00 to $111.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $106.00 price target on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Finally, Stephens set a $130.00 price target on Liquidia in a research note on Friday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $98.08.

Insider Transactions at Liquidia

In other news, CAO Dana Boyle sold 1,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.53, for a total transaction of $140,048.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 167,919 shares in the company, valued at $14,697,950.07. This trade represents a 0.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Jason Adair sold 73,631 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.09, for a total value of $5,087,165.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 174,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,063,528.54. This represents a 29.66% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,314,241 shares of company stock valued at $96,868,670. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LQDA opened at $68.66 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $58.50. Liquidia Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $21.15 and a fifty-two week high of $93.61. The company has a market capitalization of $6.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.12 and a beta of 0.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a current ratio of 2.31.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $171.68 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $168.48 million. Liquidia had a return on equity of 149.65% and a net margin of 30.74%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.49) EPS. Analysts expect that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liquidia Company Profile

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).