Wall Street Zen Downgrades Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) to Buy

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

LQDA has been the topic of several other reports. Zacks Research upgraded Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. BTIG Research upped their price objective on Liquidia from $59.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $68.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Thursday, June 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $67.43.

Liquidia Stock Performance

Shares of LQDA opened at $78.17 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a PE ratio of 558.40 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $56.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.74. Liquidia has a 52-week low of $11.85 and a 52-week high of $79.41.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. Liquidia’s revenue for the quarter was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Liquidia will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liquidia news, Director Paul B. Manning sold 200,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $63.91, for a total value of $12,782,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 716,311 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $45,779,436.01. This represents a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Stephen M. Bloch sold 318,893 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.23, for a total value of $16,017,995.39. Following the sale, the director owned 1,870,042 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $93,932,209.66. This trade represents a 14.57% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,302,030 shares of company stock worth $132,996,894. 25.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LQDA. Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Liquidia by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,547,000 after purchasing an additional 90,400 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Liquidia by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,439,000 after buying an additional 52,671 shares during the period. Opaleye Management Inc. lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 215,000 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Liquidia by 18.7% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,341,000 after buying an additional 360,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of 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 period. 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).