Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $66.78 and last traded at $65.1280, with a volume of 356681 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $61.85.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on LQDA. BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Liquidia from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Needham & Company LLC lifted 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. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Monday, May 11th. HC Wainwright raised their price target on shares of Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.63.

Liquidia Trading Up 5.6%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 466.08 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.64.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.44 million. The company’s revenue was up 4187.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Caligan Partners Lp acquired 5,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 19th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $59.98 per share, for a total transaction of $317,894.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 8,138,951 shares in the company, valued at approximately $488,174,280.98. This represents a 0.07% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Arthur S. Kirsch sold 10,000 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.80, for a total transaction of $548,000.00. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 1,163,911 shares of company stock valued at $53,115,021. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liquidia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LQDA. Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Liquidia by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,547,000 after acquiring an additional 90,400 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Liquidia by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,439,000 after purchasing an additional 52,671 shares during the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. grew its holdings in Liquidia by 9.5% during the second quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 2,475,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,838,000 after purchasing an additional 215,000 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in Liquidia by 18.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,341,000 after buying an additional 360,372 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased its position in Liquidia by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 1,783,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,527,000 after buying an additional 151,832 shares during the last quarter. 64.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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).