Insider Selling: Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Sells $2,004,250.00 in Stock

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Stephen Bloch sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.17, for a total value of $2,004,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 830,073 shares in the company, valued at approximately $66,546,952.41. This represents a 2.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link.

Liquidia Price Performance

Liquidia stock traded down $1.76 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $79.47. 1,738,308 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,851,688. The company has a market capitalization of $7.07 billion, a PE ratio of 567.68 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a fifty day moving average of $62.48 and a 200 day moving average of $46.03. Liquidia Corporation has a 1-year low of $12.88 and a 1-year high of $82.96. 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 issued its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 46.82%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Liquidia Corporation will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LQDA. Apis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Liquidia in the 3rd quarter valued at $9,569,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its holdings in Liquidia by 63.6% in the fourth quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 63,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,179,000 after acquiring an additional 24,555 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC increased 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 purchasing an additional 4,326,876 shares during the period. Tudor Investment Corp ET AL acquired a new stake in Liquidia in the third quarter worth about $1,536,000. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new stake in Liquidia during the 4th quarter worth about $709,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LQDA. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research upgraded Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. HC Wainwright raised their price target on Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Liquidia from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Liquidia has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.88.

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).