Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Stock Jumps 5.5% – Should You Buy?

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) traded up 5.5% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as high as $27.16 and last traded at $28.14. Approximately 323,341 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 2,023,550 shares. The stock had previously closed at $26.68.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research lowered Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. BTIG Research lowered Liquidia from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Raymond James Financial cut Liquidia from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $106.00 to $53.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Lifesci Capital downgraded shares of Liquidia from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $90.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Liquidia from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $83.69.

Liquidia Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $68.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $61.99. The company has a market capitalization of $2.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81 and a beta of 0.61.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.02). Liquidia had a return on equity of 149.65% and a net margin of 30.74%.The company had revenue of $171.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.48 million. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.49) EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Raman Singh sold 8,468 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.16, for a total transaction of $560,242.88. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 44,637 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,953,183.92. The trade was a 15.95% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Rajeev Saggar sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.06, for a total transaction of $3,703,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 142,265 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,536,145.90. This represents a 26.01% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 757,996 shares of company stock valued at $46,429,005 in the last three months. 25.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Liquidia by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,341,000 after purchasing an additional 360,372 shares during the last quarter. Eversept Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Liquidia by 33.0% during the first quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 677,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,565,000 after buying an additional 167,949 shares during the period. Pale Fire Capital SE boosted its position in shares of Liquidia by 2.4% during the first quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 388,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,657,000 after buying an additional 8,985 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia during the second quarter worth approximately $29,694,000. Finally, Seven Fleet Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Liquidia by 25.2% in the 2nd quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 256,603 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,459,000 after buying an additional 51,727 shares in the last quarter. 64.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Liquidia Company Profile

Liquidia Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for patients with serious cardiopulmonary diseases and other rare conditions. The company uses its proprietary PRINT technology to engineer drug particles with controlled size, shape and composition, with the goal of improving the delivery and performance of medicines.

Liquidia’s lead product is Yutrepia (treprostinil) inhalation powder, a dry-powder inhaler designed for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).