Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on LQDA. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday. BTIG Research upped their price target on Liquidia from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Liquidia from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Zacks Research lowered Liquidia from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Liquidia from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liquidia presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.00.

Liquidia Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NASDAQ:LQDA opened at $35.87 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.01. Liquidia has a 52 week low of $11.26 and a 52 week high of $46.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.97, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a current ratio of 2.01. The company has a market cap of $3.16 billion, a PE ratio of -43.22 and a beta of 0.53.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 5th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.07. Liquidia had a negative net margin of 43.53% and a negative return on equity of 209.33%. The firm had revenue of $92.02 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $87.49 million. Liquidia’s revenue was up 3072.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Liquidia will post -1.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Liquidia

In other Liquidia news, CAO Dana Boyle sold 1,580 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.65, for a total value of $65,807.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 178,848 shares in the company, valued at $7,449,019.20. The trade was a 0.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Roger Jeffs sold 66,610 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $2,493,212.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,037,528 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $38,834,673.04. This represents a 6.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 212,534 shares of company stock valued at $7,964,719. Insiders own 30.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LQDA. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new position in Liquidia during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the 2nd quarter worth about $25,000. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ bought a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Liquidia during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 41.9% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. 64.54% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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).