Vanguard Group Inc. Purchases 52,671 Shares of Liquidia Corporation $LQDA

Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,013,888 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 52,671 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc.’s holdings in Liquidia were worth $138,439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Liquidia by 102.1% during the third quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,565,638 shares of the company’s stock valued at $194,783,000 after purchasing an additional 4,326,876 shares during the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 9.5% in the 2nd quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. now owns 2,475,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,838,000 after buying an additional 215,000 shares during the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC raised its position in shares of Liquidia by 9.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. TCG Crossover Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Liquidia in the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,887,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 861,231 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,703,000 after acquiring an additional 82,955 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liquidia news, CAO Dana Boyle sold 1,576 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.78, for a total transaction of $59,541.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 175,342 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,624,420.76. This represents a 0.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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, CEO Roger Jeffs sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.09, for a total value of $1,052,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,348,095 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $56,741,318.55. This trade represents a 1.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 628,820 shares of company stock valued at $24,801,008 over the last quarter. Insiders own 25.60% of the company’s stock.

Liquidia Stock Up 25.6%

Liquidia stock opened at $53.13 on Tuesday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $37.66 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -64.01 and a beta of 0.41. Liquidia Corporation has a 1-year low of $11.85 and a 1-year high of $53.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.97, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.84.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a negative net margin of 43.53% and a negative return on equity of 209.33%. The company had revenue of $132.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. Liquidia’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

More Liquidia News

Here are the key news stories impacting Liquidia this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Liquidia reported first-quarter earnings of $0.52 per share, topping estimates, with revenue of about $132.9 million above expectations and a sharp year-over-year increase, underscoring strong commercialization momentum for YUTREPIA. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: The company said YUTREPIA generated roughly $130 million in first-quarter net product sales, with more than 4,500 unique prescriptions, helping Liquidia post its third consecutive profitable quarter and improve cash balances. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Needham raised its price target on Liquidia to $70 from $54 and BTIG lifted its target to $59 from $50, signaling that analysts still see upside after the earnings beat. Article Title Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Liquidia’s Q1 earnings call materials and transcript added detail on the launch trajectory and clinical pipeline, but did not introduce a clearly new catalyst beyond the quarter’s strong operating update. Article Title Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One Seeking Alpha downgrade argued that YUTREPIA’s launch momentum may be approaching a ceiling, with further market-share gains potentially limited by competition and valuation already reflecting optimistic peak-sales assumptions. Article Title

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Monday. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.78.

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).