Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Shares Climb 11.5% – Here’s What Happened

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA)’s share price was up 11.5% during mid-day trading on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $51.11 and last traded at $47.0490. 1,360,608 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 40% from the average session volume of 2,273,862 shares. The stock had previously closed at $42.20.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Liquidia from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 14th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Zacks Research lowered shares of Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Piper Sandler set a $129.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.85.

Liquidia Trading Up 1.8%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a current ratio of 2.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 0.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $50.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $54.41.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $171.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.48 million. Liquidia had a net margin of 30.74% and a return on equity of 149.65%. The business’s revenue was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.49) EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.05 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Scott Moomaw sold 8,863 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total transaction of $252,418.24. Following the transaction, the insider owned 181,487 shares in the company, valued at $5,168,749.76. The trade was a 4.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through 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. Also, insider Jason Adair sold 688 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.19, for a total transaction of $29,714.72. Following the transaction, the insider owned 177,269 shares in the company, valued at $7,656,248.11. This represents a 0.39% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 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 have sold 566,579 shares of company stock worth $25,746,120. 25.60% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 360,372 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Liquidia in the 2nd quarter worth about $29,694,000. Eversept Partners LP boosted its stake in Liquidia by 33.0% in the 1st quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 677,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,565,000 after purchasing an additional 167,949 shares in the last quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Liquidia by 25.2% in the 2nd quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 256,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,459,000 after purchasing an additional 51,727 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pale Fire Capital SE grew its position in Liquidia by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 388,377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,657,000 after purchasing an additional 8,985 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Liquidia Company Profile

Liquidia Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for patients with pulmonary hypertension and other serious cardiopulmonary diseases. The company is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and uses its proprietary PRINT technology to engineer drug particles with controlled size, shape and composition for inhaled and injectable medicines.

Liquidia’s lead product is Yutrepia (treprostinil) inhalation powder, a dry-powder formulation of treprostinil delivered through a proprietary inhaler.