Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Reaches New 12-Month High – Time to Buy?

Shares of Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) hit a new 52-week high on Monday . The stock traded as high as $66.78 and last traded at $65.1280, with a volume of 356681 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $61.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on LQDA. Needham & Company LLC lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Oppenheimer set a $75.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Friday. HC Wainwright raised their price target on shares of Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Liquidia from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Liquidia presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.63.

Liquidia Trading Up 5.6%

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $46.78 and a 200 day moving average of $39.64. The company has a market cap of $5.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 466.08 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 2.03 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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $132.87 million during 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 revenue was up 4187.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Liquidia

In other Liquidia news, CEO Roger Jeffs sold 6,428 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $62.18, for a total value of $399,693.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,041,667 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,770,854.06. This trade represents a 0.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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. Also, Director Raman Singh sold 29,494 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.13, for a total transaction of $1,773,474.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 38,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,330,338.15. This trade represents a 43.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 1,163,911 shares of company stock worth $53,115,021. 25.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP raised its stake in Liquidia by 124.5% during the 1st quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 204,876 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,732,000 after buying an additional 113,609 shares during the period. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new stake in Liquidia in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,111,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 18.7% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company’s stock valued at $86,341,000 after acquiring an additional 360,372 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 25.0% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 72,438 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,734,000 after acquiring an additional 14,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the first quarter valued at approximately $3,650,000. 64.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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).