Insider Selling: Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Sells 111,049 Shares of Stock

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Director Stephen Bloch sold 111,049 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.46, for a total transaction of $7,935,561.54. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,065,135 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $76,114,547.10. This represents a 9.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Liquidia Stock Down 5.4%

Shares of NASDAQ LQDA traded down $3.88 on Tuesday, reaching $67.92. 2,323,237 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,746,808. Liquidia Corporation has a 12 month low of $11.85 and a 12 month high of $73.22. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.24. The company has a market cap of $6.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 485.18 and a beta of 0.57. 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 announced its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 46.82%. The business had revenue of $132.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LQDA. Farallon Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 last quarter. TCG Crossover Management LLC purchased a new stake in Liquidia in the third quarter worth approximately $38,887,000. MPM Bioimpact LLC boosted its holdings in Liquidia by 600.4% in the fourth quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC now owns 1,400,869 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200,869 shares during the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Liquidia in the third quarter worth approximately $12,571,000. Finally, Apis Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Liquidia in the third quarter worth approximately $9,569,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on LQDA. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Zacks Research raised shares of Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Liquidia from $50.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Liquidia from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued a “strong-buy” rating and set a $68.00 price target on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.29.

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).