Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and three have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $60.2857.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LQDA shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Sarah Krepp sold 24,880 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.28, for a total value of $1,748,566.40. Following the sale, the insider owned 121,863 shares in the company, valued at $8,564,531.64. This represents a 16.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a 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. Also, Director Stephen M. Bloch sold 85,062 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.44, for a total value of $6,076,829.28. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 980,073 shares in the company, valued at $70,016,415.12. The trade was a 7.99% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 2,282,894 shares of company stock worth $128,344,713 over the last ninety days. 25.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LQDA. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 4.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 10.7% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 861,231 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,703,000 after buying an additional 82,955 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 15.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 121,756 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,796,000 after buying an additional 16,022 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 40.7% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $334,000 after buying an additional 7,765 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 13.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 94,152 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,174,000 after buying an additional 11,111 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Liquidia Price Performance

Liquidia stock opened at $71.07 on Friday. 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 business’s 50-day simple moving average is $53.10 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $42.24. The company has a market cap of $6.32 billion, a PE ratio of 507.68 and a beta of 0.58. Liquidia has a fifty-two week low of $11.85 and a fifty-two week high of $73.22.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 46.82%. The company had revenue of $132.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.44 million. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Liquidia will post 2.97 EPS for the current 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).