Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) Receives $42.00 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.6667.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on LQDA shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $31.00 to $44.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Zacks Research lowered Liquidia from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Liquidia from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on Liquidia from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th.

Liquidia Stock Performance

NASDAQ LQDA opened at $36.66 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $37.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.28. 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 has a 1 year low of $11.26 and a 1 year high of $46.67. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.23 billion, a PE ratio of -44.17 and a beta of 0.52.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The company reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $92.02 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $87.49 million. Liquidia had a negative net margin of 43.53% and a negative return on equity of 209.33%. Liquidia’s revenue for the quarter was up 3072.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Liquidia will post -1.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liquidia

In other news, CEO Roger Jeffs sold 66,610 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $2,493,212.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,037,528 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,834,673.04. This trade represents a 6.03% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jason Adair sold 688 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Monday, January 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.65, for a total transaction of $28,655.20. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 211,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,795,188.85. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 212,534 shares of company stock valued at $7,964,719 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LQDA. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its position in Liquidia by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company’s stock valued at $298,547,000 after purchasing an additional 90,400 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $138,439,000 after purchasing an additional 52,671 shares in the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 215,000 shares in the last quarter. Caprock Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 9.3% in the 4th quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 1,783,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,527,000 after purchasing an additional 151,832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCG Crossover Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Liquidia during the 3rd quarter valued at about $38,887,000. Institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

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).