Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Sells $17,063,005.67 in Stock

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Stephen Bloch sold 242,269 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.43, for a total transaction of $17,063,005.67. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 1,176,184 shares in the company, valued at approximately $82,838,639.12. This trade represents a 17.08% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Liquidia Stock Performance

NASDAQ:LQDA traded down $0.40 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $71.23. The stock had a trading volume of 1,693,791 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,738,461. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $49.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 508.82 and a beta of 0.58. Liquidia Corporation has a 52 week low of $11.85 and a 52 week high of $72.71.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 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 analysts’ expectations of $119.44 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4187.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LQDA. Needham & Company LLC upped their price target on shares of Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on Liquidia from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research upgraded Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. HC Wainwright raised their target price on Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Liquidia from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.29.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia during the 4th quarter worth $25,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Liquidia in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ bought a new position in Liquidia in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new position in Liquidia in the 3rd quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Liquidia by 41.9% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

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).