Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Paul Manning Sells 200,000 Shares

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Paul Manning sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.91, for a total value of $12,782,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 716,311 shares in the company, valued at $45,779,436.01. The trade was a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

Liquidia Trading Up 3.3%

LQDA traded up $2.05 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $63.90. The stock had a trading volume of 3,158,786 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,717,868. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 456.46 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a current ratio of 2.22. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.64. Liquidia Corporation has a 52 week low of $11.85 and a 52 week high of $66.78.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $132.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.44 million. Liquidia had a return on equity of 46.82% and a net margin of 7.74%.The firm’s revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday. BTIG Research lifted their target price on Liquidia from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC lifted their target price on Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Liquidia has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.63.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Farallon Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Liquidia by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,547,000 after acquiring an additional 90,400 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Liquidia by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,439,000 after acquiring an additional 52,671 shares during the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Liquidia by 9.5% in the second quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 2,475,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,838,000 after acquiring an additional 215,000 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE increased 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 valued at $86,341,000 after acquiring an additional 360,372 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased 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 valued at $61,527,000 after acquiring an additional 151,832 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

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).