Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Receives Neutral Rating from Bank of America

Key Points

• Bank of America reaffirmed its neutral rating on Liquidia and raised its price target to $79 from $64, implying only about 1.06% upside from the current stock price.
• Despite the neutral call from Bank of America, several other analysts have turned more bullish, with recent upgrades and higher targets helping push Liquidia’s consensus rating to Moderate Buy and average target price to $68.88.
• Liquidia’s shares were trading near their 52-week high at $78.17, while the company also reported strong quarterly results, including EPS of $0.52 versus $0.41 expected and revenue of $132.87 million, up sharply year over year.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "neutral" rating reaffirmed by analysts at Bank of America in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $79.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $64.00. Bank of America's price objective suggests a potential upside of 1.06% from the stock's current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. Zacks Research raised Liquidia from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. Lifesci Capital raised shares of Liquidia to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. BTIG Research lifted 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. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Liquidia from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, HC Wainwright raised their target price on shares of Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 5th. Three equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liquidia presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $68.88.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of LQDA opened at $78.17 on Monday. Liquidia has a twelve month low of $11.85 and a twelve month high of $79.41. The company has a market capitalization of $6.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 558.40 and a beta of 0.57. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $56.77 and a 200 day moving average of $43.80. The company has a quick ratio of 2.03, a current ratio of 2.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $132.87 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $119.44 million. Liquidia's revenue for the quarter was up 4187.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Liquidia will post 2.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Michael Kaseta sold 139,390 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.14, for a total transaction of $5,595,114.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 353,356 shares in the company, valued at $14,183,709.84. This trade represents a 28.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Paul B. Manning sold 200,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.91, for a total transaction of $12,782,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 716,311 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $45,779,436.01. The trade was a 21.83% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,302,030 shares of company stock valued at $132,996,894. 25.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Liquidia by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,656,038 shares of the company's stock worth $298,547,000 after buying an additional 90,400 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Liquidia by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,013,888 shares of the company's stock worth $138,439,000 after acquiring an additional 52,671 shares in the last quarter. Opaleye Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 215,000 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Liquidia by 18.7% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company's stock worth $86,341,000 after acquiring an additional 360,372 shares during the period. Finally, Caprock Group LLC raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 151,832 shares during the period. 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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