Insider Selling: Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Insider Sells 9,220 Shares of Stock

Key Points

• Insider sale: Rajeev Saggar sold 9,220 shares at an average price of $38.37 under a Rule 10b5-1 plan to cover tax withholding, netting about $353,771 and reducing his stake by 5.05% to 173,270 shares.
• Recent results and stock snapshot: Liquidia shares traded around $38.71 (down 0.4%); the company beat quarterly EPS ($0.15 vs. $0.08) and revenue ($92.02M vs. $87.49M) but remains unprofitable with a negative net margin and ROE.
• Market sentiment: Institutional investors own about 64.5% of the stock and analysts have a consensus "Moderate Buy" with an average price target of $43.44, though ratings range from strong-buy to sell.

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) insider Rajeev Saggar sold 9,220 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Monday, April 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $38.37, for a total transaction of $353,771.40. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 173,270 shares in the company, valued at $6,648,369.90. The trade was a 5.05% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 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.

Liquidia Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of Liquidia stock traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $38.71. 844,813 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,775,539. The company has a 50 day moving average of $36.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $32.92. Liquidia Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $11.85 and a fifty-two week high of $46.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.97. The stock has a market cap of $3.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -46.64 and a beta of 0.45.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.07. Liquidia had a negative return on equity of 209.33% and a negative net margin of 43.53%.The business had revenue of $92.02 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $87.49 million. The company's quarterly revenue was up 3072.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post -1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Liquidia by 4.7% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,681 shares of the company's stock valued at $556,000 after buying an additional 1,700 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 10.7% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 861,231 shares of the company's stock worth $12,703,000 after acquiring an additional 82,955 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 15.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 121,756 shares of the company's stock worth $1,796,000 after acquiring an additional 16,022 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its stake in Liquidia by 40.7% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,840 shares of the company's stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 7,765 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in Liquidia by 13.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 94,152 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 11,111 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.54% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on LQDA shares. Zacks Research cut Liquidia from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Lifesci Capital raised shares of Liquidia to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Liquidia from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their price target on shares of Liquidia from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $43.44.

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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