Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Stock Price Down 6.1% After Analyst Downgrade

Key Points

• Liquidia shares fell 6.1% to approximately $26.89 after Wells Fargo downgraded the stock from “overweight” to “equal weight” and set a $30 price target.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: Liquidia has an overall “Hold” rating and an average price target of $83.69, with ratings ranging from “Strong Buy” to “Sell.”
• Institutional investors own 64.54% of the company, while insiders have sold $44.1 million worth of shares over the past three months; the company’s latest quarter showed revenue growth of 1,842.1% year over year but slightly missed EPS expectations.

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) shares dropped 6.1% on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating. Wells Fargo & Company now has a $30.00 price target on the stock. Liquidia traded as low as $25.92 and last traded at $26.8880. 1,088,644 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 44% from the average daily volume of 1,950,457 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.64.

LQDA has been the topic of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Liquidia to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Lifesci Capital cut Liquidia from an "outperform" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $90.00 price target for the company. in a report on Wednesday, August 12th. Wedbush set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Friday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Liquidia from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, HC Wainwright cut their price target on shares of Liquidia from $130.00 to $58.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $83.69.

Insider Activity

In other Liquidia news, Director Raman Singh sold 8,468 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.16, for a total value of $560,242.88. Following the transaction, the director owned 44,637 shares in the company, valued at $2,953,183.92. The trade was a 15.95% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Dana Boyle sold 1,600 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.53, for a total transaction of $140,048.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 167,919 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,697,950.07. The trade was a 0.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 have sold a total of 572,519 shares of company stock worth $44,087,514 over the last three months. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Liquidia

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Eversept Partners LP increased its holdings in Liquidia by 33.0% in the first quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 677,392 shares of the company's stock valued at $25,565,000 after buying an additional 167,949 shares during the last quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE raised its stake in Liquidia by 2.4% during the first quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 388,377 shares of the company's stock valued at $14,657,000 after buying an additional 8,985 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Liquidia during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,694,000. Finally, Seven Fleet Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in Liquidia by 25.2% during the 2nd quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP now owns 256,603 shares of the company's stock worth $20,459,000 after buying an additional 51,727 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.54% of the company's stock.

Liquidia Trading Down 6.1%

The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The company has a market cap of $2.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.57 and a beta of 0.61. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $71.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.21.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.02). Liquidia had a net margin of 30.74% and a return on equity of 149.65%. The firm 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 company posted ($0.49) earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Liquidia Corporation will post 2.34 EPS for the current year.

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).

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.