Boothbay Fund Management LLC Lowers Position in Liquidia Corporation $LQDA

Boothbay Fund Management LLC lessened its position in Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) by 20.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 613,548 shares of the company’s stock after selling 155,446 shares during the quarter. Liquidia accounts for approximately 0.3% of Boothbay Fund Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Boothbay Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Liquidia were worth $21,161,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,547,000 after purchasing an additional 90,400 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Liquidia by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company’s stock valued at $138,439,000 after buying an additional 52,671 shares during the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. raised its stake in Liquidia by 9.5% during the second quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 2,475,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,838,000 after buying an additional 215,000 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC raised its stake in Liquidia by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 1,783,921 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,527,000 after buying an additional 151,832 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCG Crossover Management LLC purchased a new position in Liquidia during the third quarter valued at $38,887,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Liquidia news, insider Sarah Krepp sold 24,880 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.28, for a total transaction of $1,748,566.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 121,863 shares in the company, valued at $8,564,531.64. This represents a 16.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Stephen M. Bloch sold 85,062 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.44, for a total value of $6,076,829.28. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 980,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $70,016,415.12. This represents a 7.99% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,282,894 shares of company stock valued at $128,344,713. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

LQDA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Lifesci Capital upgraded Liquidia to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Zacks Research raised Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $68.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a report on Thursday, June 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Liquidia currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.29.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of Liquidia stock opened at $68.65 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $51.76 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.76. Liquidia Corporation has a 52 week low of $11.85 and a 52 week high of $73.22. The company has a market capitalization of $6.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 490.39 and a beta of 0.58. 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 (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $132.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. Liquidia had a return on equity of 46.82% and a net margin of 7.74%.Liquidia’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liquidia 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).