Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Liquidia Call Options (NASDAQ:LQDA)

Liquidia Co. (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders purchased 6,218 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 139% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,603 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liquidia news, insider Rajeev Saggar sold 2,450 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.67, for a total value of $33,491.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 263,152 shares in the company, valued at $3,597,287.84. This represents a 0.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Russell Schundler sold 5,964 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.57, for a total transaction of $80,931.48. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 570,301 shares in the company, valued at $7,738,984.57. This represents a 1.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 33,138 shares of company stock worth $450,233 in the last three months. 26.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LQDA. LM Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Liquidia in the fourth quarter worth approximately $25,948,000. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 2,675.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 700,171 shares of the company's stock worth $8,234,000 after buying an additional 674,940 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 1,484.5% in the fourth quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 535,552 shares of the company's stock worth $6,293,000 after buying an additional 501,752 shares in the last quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP bought a new position in shares of Liquidia in the fourth quarter worth approximately $5,880,000. Finally, Eversept Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 314.1% in the fourth quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 571,305 shares of the company's stock worth $6,719,000 after buying an additional 433,356 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.54% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LQDA. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Bank of America lowered their price objective on shares of Liquidia from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, BTIG Research restated a "buy" rating on shares of Liquidia in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $26.89.

Liquidia Price Performance

NASDAQ:LQDA traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $14.10. 1,836,127 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,205,487. Liquidia has a one year low of $8.26 and a one year high of $19.41. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $15.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.13. The company has a market cap of $1.21 billion, a PE ratio of -8.65 and a beta of 0.04.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.42) by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $3.12 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.23 million. Liquidia had a negative return on equity of 163.21% and a negative net margin of 765.38%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Liquidia will post -1.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Liquidia

Liquidia Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, develops, manufactures, and commercializes various products for unmet patient needs in the United States. Its lead product candidates include YUTREPIA, an inhaled dry powder formulation of treprostinil for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and pulmonary hypertension associated with interstitial lung disease (PH-ILD).