Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Stock Rating Upgraded by Lifesci Capital

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) was upgraded by research analysts at Lifesci Capital from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $59.00 target price on the stock. Lifesci Capital’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 73.84% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Piper Sandler set a $129.00 price objective on Liquidia in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $130.00 target price on Liquidia in a research note on Friday, July 24th. BTIG Research raised Liquidia from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised Liquidia to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Finally, Needham & Company LLC reduced their price target on shares of Liquidia from $72.00 to $58.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Liquidia has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $77.31.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of LQDA traded up $7.13 on Wednesday, hitting $33.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 20,741,362 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,192,645. The company has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a PE ratio of 24.77 and a beta of 0.61. Liquidia has a fifty-two week low of $21.94 and a fifty-two week high of $93.61. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $63.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $61.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 2.12.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.02). Liquidia had a net margin of 30.74% and a return on equity of 149.65%. The business had revenue of $171.68 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $168.48 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned ($0.49) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Liquidia will post 2.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Russell Schundler sold 13,692 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total transaction of $389,948.16. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 602,841 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,168,911.68. The trade was a 2.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 1,101 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.48, for a total transaction of $31,356.48. Following the sale, the insider owned 64,846 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,846,814.08. The trade was a 1.67% 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 745,194 shares of company stock worth $41,081,702. Corporate insiders own 25.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bank of America Corp DE increased its stake in Liquidia by 18.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 360,372 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in shares of Liquidia in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,694,000. Eversept Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 33.0% in the first quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 677,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,565,000 after acquiring an additional 167,949 shares in the last quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 25.2% during the 2nd quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 256,603 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,459,000 after purchasing an additional 51,727 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pale Fire Capital SE grew its position in shares of Liquidia by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 388,377 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,657,000 after purchasing an additional 8,985 shares during the period. 64.54% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Liquidia

Here are the key news stories impacting Liquidia this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Liquidia settled all six pending patent, antitrust, trade-secret and contract disputes with United Therapeutics. The agreement allows YUTREPIA to remain available for PAH patients and eliminates years of litigation uncertainty. Liquidia settlement announcement
• Positive Sentiment: Preliminary third-quarter YUTREPIA net product sales reached $222.7 million, and Liquidia reported $396.1 million in cash and equivalents as of September 30. Management expects ongoing sales and cash on hand to fund settlement payments and clinical programs without additional financing.
• Positive Sentiment: BTIG upgraded Liquidia from “neutral” to “buy” with a $70 price target. Needham maintained a “buy” rating while reducing its target to $58, suggesting analysts still see substantial upside following the settlement.
• Positive Sentiment: Trading activity reflected strong investor interest, including call-option volume more than doubling its recent average. Liquidia also plans to continue advancing YUTREPIA and its L606 clinical program.
• Neutral Sentiment: Several executives and insiders, including the CEO and CFO, sold shares at $28.48 under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans to cover tax withholding on vested equity awards. Because the transactions were largely administrative, they provide a limited standalone signal about management’s outlook. Liquidia insider sale filing
• Negative Sentiment: The settlement requires Liquidia to pay United Therapeutics a net $380.7 million, including $175 million within 30 business days, $145.4 million in 2027 installments and $60.3 million tied to antitrust litigation. The payments will significantly reduce the company’s cash cushion.
• Negative Sentiment: Liquidia agreed not to appeal a patent ruling and will remove the PH-ILD indication from YUTREPIA’s label. It will also stop promoting Treprostinil Injection, potentially limiting future revenue and YUTREPIA’s addressable market.

Liquidia Company Profile

Liquidia Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for patients with serious cardiopulmonary diseases and other rare conditions. The company uses its proprietary PRINT technology to engineer drug particles with controlled size, shape and composition, with the goal of improving the delivery and performance of medicines.

Liquidia’s lead product is Yutrepia (treprostinil) inhalation powder, a dry-powder inhaler designed for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).