Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

LQDA has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company began coverage on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Monday, October 20th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $31.00 price objective for the company. HC Wainwright upped their price target on shares of Liquidia from $35.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $47.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.56.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of Liquidia stock opened at $36.60 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.18 billion, a PE ratio of -25.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.48. Liquidia has a twelve month low of $11.26 and a twelve month high of $39.16. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.19. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $31.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.40.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The company reported ($0.04) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.45) by $0.41. The company had revenue of $54.34 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.86 million. Liquidia had a negative return on equity of 296.78% and a negative net margin of 176.04%.Liquidia’s revenue was up 1106.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Liquidia will post -1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Rajeev Saggar sold 71,381 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.00, for a total value of $1,927,287.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 176,549 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,766,823. This represents a 28.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Kaseta sold 1,166 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.19, for a total transaction of $37,533.54. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 353,823 shares in the company, valued at $11,389,562.37. This trade represents a 0.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold 113,088 shares of company stock worth $3,176,474 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 30.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farallon Capital Management LLC grew its position in Liquidia by 102.1% in the third quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,565,638 shares of the company’s stock worth $194,783,000 after acquiring an additional 4,326,876 shares during the period. TCG Crossover Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,887,000. Caprock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Liquidia during the 3rd quarter worth $37,114,000. Tyro Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the 2nd quarter worth about $15,473,000. Finally, CenterBook Partners LP increased its position in shares of Liquidia by 811.7% during the 2nd quarter. CenterBook Partners LP now owns 1,103,850 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,754,000 after purchasing an additional 982,778 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).