Hanseatic Management Services Inc. Takes $772,000 Position in Liquidia Corporation $LQDA

Hanseatic Management Services Inc. acquired a new stake in Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 20,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $772,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its stake in Liquidia by 4.7% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,681 shares of the company’s stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. 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 valued at $12,703,000 after purchasing an additional 82,955 shares during the period. 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 valued at $1,796,000 after purchasing an additional 16,022 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 40.7% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,000 after purchasing an additional 7,765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings 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 valued at $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 11,111 shares in the last quarter. 64.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Sarah Krepp sold 7,864 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Monday, July 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.51, for a total transaction of $562,354.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 117,178 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,379,398.78. The trade was a 6.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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, CFO Michael Kaseta sold 20,430 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.51, for a total transaction of $1,460,949.30. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 345,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,728,515.55. The trade was a 5.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 2,022,134 shares of company stock worth $129,579,224. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LQDA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $79.00 target price (up from $64.00) on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday, June 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Liquidia from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 27th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. Zacks Research upgraded Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $75.00 price objective on Liquidia in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.88.

Liquidia Stock Up 6.2%

LQDA stock opened at $79.94 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $68.49 and its 200 day moving average price is $48.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 571.04 and a beta of 0.55. Liquidia Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $14.25 and a fifty-two week high of $82.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.22.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last issued 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 the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Liquidia Corporation will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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).