Liquidia’s (LQDA) “Neutral” Rating Reaffirmed at Bank of America

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Bank of America in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $79.00 target price on the stock, up from their prior target price of $64.00. Bank of America‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 1.06% from the stock’s previous close.

LQDA has been the topic of several other research reports. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 5th. Needham & Company LLC raised their target price on shares of Liquidia from $54.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday, May 11th. BTIG Research boosted their price target on shares of Liquidia from $59.00 to $109.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Liquidia currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.88.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of Liquidia stock opened at $78.17 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 558.40 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. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $56.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $43.80. Liquidia has a 52 week low of $11.85 and a 52 week high of $79.41.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.11. Liquidia had a return on equity of 46.82% and a net margin of 7.74%.The company had revenue of $132.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $119.44 million. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Liquidia will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Liquidia

In other news, insider Sarah Krepp sold 24,880 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.28, for a total transaction of $1,748,566.40. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 121,863 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,564,531.64. This represents a 16.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sanjeev Khindri sold 4,134 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.46, for a total transaction of $270,611.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 67,132 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,394,460.72. The trade was a 5.80% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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. Insiders have sold a total of 2,302,030 shares of company stock valued at $132,996,894 over the last 90 days. 25.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LQDA. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. bought a new stake in shares of Liquidia in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. NewEdge Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Liquidia during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Liquidia in the third quarter worth $34,000. Covestor Ltd lifted its position in Liquidia by 41.9% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,216 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 359 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC boosted its stake in Liquidia by 281.2% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 6,679 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,000 after buying an additional 4,927 shares during the period. 64.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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).