Insider Selling: Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) CAO Sells 9,002 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Liquidia CAO Dana Boyle sold 9,002 shares on July 13 at an average price of $71.51, generating about $643,733. The sale reduced Boyle’s direct stake by 5.04% and was made under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan to cover tax withholding tied to vested equity awards.
• Liquidia’s stock rose 7.4% to $76.49 in Tuesday trading, near its 52-week high of $82.96. The company now has a market cap of about $6.8 billion.
• Recent fundamentals and analyst sentiment remain positive: Liquidia beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, and Wall Street’s consensus rating is “Moderate Buy” with a $68.88 price target. Analyst targets range widely, with BTIG recently raising its target to $109.00.

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) CAO Dana Boyle sold 9,002 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $71.51, for a total value of $643,733.02. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 169,519 shares in the company, valued at $12,122,303.69. This trade represents a 5.04% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Dana Boyle also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, April 27th, Dana Boyle sold 1,576 shares of Liquidia stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.78, for a total transaction of $59,541.28.

Liquidia Trading Up 7.4%

NASDAQ LQDA traded up $5.28 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $76.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,153,916 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,219,263. Liquidia Corporation has a twelve month low of $14.04 and a twelve month high of $82.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 546.40 and a beta of 0.55. 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 has a fifty day moving average of $66.37 and a 200 day moving average of $47.52.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on LQDA. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $60.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d-)" rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Liquidia from $59.00 to $109.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Raymond James Financial reissued a "strong-buy" rating and set a $68.00 price target on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday, June 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $51.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Liquidia currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $68.88.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company's stock worth $298,547,000 after acquiring an additional 90,400 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Liquidia by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company's stock valued at $138,439,000 after acquiring an additional 52,671 shares in the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. boosted its stake in 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 during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Liquidia by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company's stock worth $86,341,000 after purchasing an additional 360,372 shares during the period. Finally, Caprock Group LLC increased its holdings in Liquidia by 9.3% during 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. Institutional investors own 64.54% of the company's stock.

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).

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