Investors Purchase High Volume of Liquidia Call Options (NASDAQ:LQDA)

Liquidia Corporation (NASDAQ:LQDA) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock traders bought 17,837 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 72% compared to the typical daily volume of 10,370 call options.

Liquidia Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:LQDA traded up $6.02 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $71.27. The stock had a trading volume of 2,205,132 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,727,988. The company has a current ratio of 2.22, a quick ratio of 2.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18. The company has a market cap of $6.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 510.12 and a beta of 0.58. Liquidia has a 1 year low of $11.85 and a 1 year high of $72.18. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $48.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.37.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $132.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $119.44 million. Liquidia had a return on equity of 46.82% and a net margin of 7.74%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4187.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Liquidia will post 2.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer set a $75.00 price target on Liquidia in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Lifesci Capital raised Liquidia to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Monday, May 11th. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on Liquidia from $67.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.29.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liquidia news, Director Paul B. Manning sold 200,000 shares of Liquidia 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 owned 716,311 shares in the company, valued at $45,779,436.01. The trade was a 21.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Sanjeev Khindri sold 4,134 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Monday, June 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.46, for a total transaction of $270,611.64. Following the sale, the insider owned 67,132 shares in the company, valued at $4,394,460.72. This represents a 5.80% decrease in their position. 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 1,673,680 shares of company stock valued at $85,949,087 in the last 90 days. 25.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liquidia

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Liquidia by 102.1% in the 3rd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 8,565,638 shares of the company’s stock valued at $194,783,000 after purchasing an additional 4,326,876 shares in the last quarter. TCG Crossover Management LLC acquired a new position in Liquidia in the 3rd quarter valued at $38,887,000. Caprock Group LLC bought a new stake in Liquidia in the 3rd quarter valued at $37,114,000. MPM Bioimpact LLC lifted its holdings in Liquidia by 600.4% during the 4th quarter. MPM Bioimpact LLC now owns 1,400,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,316,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Liquidia in the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,571,000. 64.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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).