HC Wainwright Has Lowered Expectations for Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Stock Price

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) had its price objective decreased by research analysts at HC Wainwright from $130.00 to $58.00 in a research note issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. HC Wainwright’s target price points to a potential upside of 107.22% from the company’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research lowered shares of Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 22nd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $130.00 target price on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Friday, July 24th. BTIG Research cut shares of Liquidia from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Liquidia from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, September 20th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on Liquidia from $79.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $85.83.

Liquidia Stock Performance

Liquidia stock opened at $27.99 on Friday. Liquidia has a 52 week low of $21.35 and a 52 week high of $93.61. 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 stock has a market cap of $2.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.43 and a beta of 0.61. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $72.78 and a 200-day moving average of $62.26.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $171.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.48 million. Liquidia had a return on equity of 149.65% and a net margin of 30.74%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.49) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Liquidia will post 2.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Liquidia

In related news, insider Rajeev Saggar sold 50,000 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.06, for a total value of $3,703,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 142,265 shares in the company, valued at $10,536,145.90. This trade represents a 26.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Katherine Rielly-Gauvin sold 36,789 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.99, for a total value of $2,758,807.11. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 44,637 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,347,328.63. This represents a 45.18% 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. Insiders have sold a total of 597,519 shares of company stock valued at $46,091,764 over the last quarter. Insiders own 25.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liquidia

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Liquidia by 18.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,287,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $86,341,000 after buying an additional 360,372 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Liquidia during the 2nd quarter valued at $29,694,000. Eversept Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Liquidia by 33.0% during the 1st quarter. Eversept Partners LP now owns 677,392 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,565,000 after acquiring an additional 167,949 shares in the last quarter. Seven Fleet Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 51,727 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pale Fire Capital SE grew its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Pale Fire Capital SE now owns 388,377 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,657,000 after acquiring an additional 8,985 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Liquidia

Here are the key news stories impacting Liquidia this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Jefferies upgraded Liquidia to “strong buy,” potentially signaling confidence that YUTREPIA, the company’s underlying growth and its legal strategy retain significant value. Zacks Liquidia Stock News
• Positive Sentiment: Needham maintained a “buy” rating while lowering its price target from $110 to $72. The revised target still implies substantial potential upside from the approximately $28 share price, although it reflects greater litigation risk. Zacks Liquidia Stock News
• Neutral Sentiment: Liquidia plans to appeal the ruling and intends to seek removal of the PH-ILD indication from YUTREPIA’s label. The court has asked both companies to propose remedies within one week, so the ultimate commercial impact remains unresolved. Liquidia Hatch-Waxman Litigation Update
• Negative Sentiment: The ruling creates a major threat to YUTREPIA’s PH-ILD sales and could result in label restrictions, reduced market availability or an injunction sought by United Therapeutics. BTIG consequently downgraded LQDA to “neutral.” Seeking Alpha BTIG Downgrade
• Negative Sentiment: Investors reacted to the litigation setback with an exceptionally steep selloff, reflecting uncertainty over YUTREPIA’s principal growth opportunity despite recent revenue growth and profitability. An appeal could determine whether the shares recover. Yahoo Finance Liquidia Court Ruling

About Liquidia

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).