Insider Selling: Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Insider Sells $709,808.26 in Stock

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) insider Rajeev Saggar sold 9,926 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.51, for a total value of $709,808.26. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 171,799 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,285,346.49. This represents a 5.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.

Liquidia Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LQDA opened at $75.27 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $48.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 537.68 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. Liquidia Corporation has a 52-week low of $14.04 and a 52-week high of $82.96.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a return on equity of 46.82% and a net margin of 7.74%.The business had revenue of $132.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. Liquidia’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LQDA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. BTIG Research upped their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $59.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. HC Wainwright upped 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, June 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.88.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of LQDA. Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Liquidia by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company’s stock worth $298,547,000 after acquiring an additional 90,400 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 1.3% in the 4th 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 period. Opaleye Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 9.5% in the 2nd 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 lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 360,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 151,832 shares in 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).