The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Buys 22,592 Shares of Liquidia Corporation $LQDA

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in shares of Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) by 63.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 58,265 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,592 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Liquidia were worth $2,199,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Liquidia during the second quarter worth approximately $25,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Liquidia in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of Liquidia by 41.9% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,216 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Liquidia by 281.2% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 4,927 shares during the period. Finally, Hurley Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 140.7% during the 4th quarter. Hurley Capital LLC now owns 5,200 shares of the company’s stock worth $179,000 after buying an additional 3,040 shares during the period. 64.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Jason Adair sold 688 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.53, for a total transaction of $60,220.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 216,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,944,818.14. This represents a 0.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Sanjeev Khindri sold 1,185 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.51, for a total transaction of $84,739.35. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 65,947 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,715,869.97. The trade was a 1.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 1,806,861 shares of company stock worth $125,814,362. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. HC Wainwright set a $36.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday, May 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Oppenheimer set a $75.00 price objective on Liquidia in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $129.00 price objective on Liquidia in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.18.

Liquidia Stock Performance

Shares of Liquidia stock opened at $90.22 on Monday. Liquidia Corporation has a 1 year low of $19.02 and a 1 year high of $91.57. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $76.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $53.81. The company has a market cap of $8.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 644.47 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 released its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a net margin of 7.74% and a return on equity of 46.82%. The firm had revenue of $132.87 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $119.44 million. The firm’s revenue was up 4187.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Liquidia Corporation will post 3.02 EPS for the current year.

Liquidia 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).