HC Wainwright Cuts Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Price Target to $58.00

Key Points

• HC Wainwright cut Liquidia’s price target from $130 to $58 while maintaining a “buy” rating; the new target still implies roughly 107% upside from the reported $27.99 share price.
• Liquidia shares fell 7.5%, with analyst views mixed: the stock has a consensus “hold” rating and an average price target of $85.83. Raymond James also reduced its target to $53, while Wells Fargo set a $30 target.
• The company reported $171.68 million in quarterly revenue, up 1,842% year over year, but narrowly missed earnings expectations. Investors also face litigation-related uncertainty surrounding YUTREPIA, Liquidia’s lead inhaled therapy.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) had its price target decreased by analysts at HC Wainwright from $130.00 to $58.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a "buy" rating on the stock. HC Wainwright's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 107.22% from the company's current price.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on LQDA. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Liquidia from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Liquidia from a "sell (d-)" rating to a "hold (c)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Thursday. Raymond James Financial lowered shares of Liquidia from a "strong-buy" rating to an "outperform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $106.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company set a $30.00 price target on Liquidia in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Liquidia currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $85.83.

Liquidia Trading Down 7.5%

Shares of Liquidia stock opened at $27.99 on Friday. Liquidia has a 1 year low of $21.35 and a 1 year high of $93.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 2.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $72.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.26. The company has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43 and a beta of 0.61.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 EPS 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 company had revenue of $171.68 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $168.48 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.49) EPS. Liquidia's quarterly revenue was up 1842.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Liquidia will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Liquidia news, insider Rajeev Saggar sold 50,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.06, for a total value of $3,703,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 142,265 shares of the company's stock, valued at $10,536,145.90. This trade represents a 26.01% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Dana Boyle sold 1,600 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.53, for a total value of $140,048.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 167,919 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,697,950.07. This represents a 0.94% 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 sold 597,519 shares of company stock worth $46,091,764 in the last quarter. Insiders own 25.60% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LQDA. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Liquidia by 63.3% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 58,265 shares of the company's stock worth $2,199,000 after buying an additional 22,592 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Liquidia in the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,694,000. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP grew its stake in shares of Liquidia by 25.2% during the second quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 256,603 shares of the company's stock valued at $20,459,000 after acquiring an additional 51,727 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Liquidia by 18.7% during 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 acquiring an additional 360,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB acquired a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the second quarter valued at about $1,993,000. 64.54% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Liquidia

Here are the key news stories impacting Liquidia this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies upgraded Liquidia to “strong buy,” potentially signaling confidence that YUTREPIA, the company’s underlying growth and its legal strategy retain significant value. Zacks Liquidia Stock News
• Positive Sentiment: Needham maintained a “buy” rating while lowering its price target from $110 to $72. The revised target still implies substantial potential upside from the approximately $28 share price, although it reflects greater litigation risk. Zacks Liquidia Stock News
• Neutral Sentiment: Liquidia plans to appeal the ruling and intends to seek removal of the PH-ILD indication from YUTREPIA’s label. The court has asked both companies to propose remedies within one week, so the ultimate commercial impact remains unresolved. Liquidia Hatch-Waxman Litigation Update
• Negative Sentiment: The ruling creates a major threat to YUTREPIA’s PH-ILD sales and could result in label restrictions, reduced market availability or an injunction sought by United Therapeutics. BTIG consequently downgraded LQDA to “neutral.” Seeking Alpha BTIG Downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Investors reacted to the litigation setback with an exceptionally steep selloff, reflecting uncertainty over YUTREPIA’s principal growth opportunity despite recent revenue growth and profitability. An appeal could determine whether the shares recover. Yahoo Finance Liquidia Court Ruling

About Liquidia

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).

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