Raymond James Financial Inc. Takes Position in Liquidia Co. (NASDAQ:LQDA)

Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Liquidia Co. (NASDAQ:LQDA) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 18,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $218,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in Liquidia during the fourth quarter worth about $59,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in Liquidia during the fourth quarter worth about $154,000. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new position in Liquidia during the fourth quarter worth about $169,000. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in Liquidia by 20.3% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 15,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,000 after purchasing an additional 2,685 shares during the period. Finally, DMC Group LLC grew its holdings in Liquidia by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. DMC Group LLC now owns 16,302 shares of the company’s stock worth $192,000 after purchasing an additional 2,419 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 64.54% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Roger Jeffs sold 14,130 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.57, for a total value of $191,744.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,006,420 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,657,119.40. The trade was a 1.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, General Counsel Russell Schundler sold 5,964 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.57, for a total transaction of $80,931.48. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 570,301 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 33,138 shares of company stock worth $450,233. Corporate insiders own 26.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LQDA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Liquidia from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday, May 5th. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $29.00 price objective on shares of Liquidia in a report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Liquidia has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $27.13.

Liquidia Trading Up 3.2%

NASDAQ LQDA opened at $15.75 on Tuesday. Liquidia Co. has a 1-year low of $8.26 and a 1-year high of $16.81. The company has a 50 day moving average of $14.25 and a 200-day moving average of $13.21. The company has a market cap of $1.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.66 and a beta of 0.24.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 12th. The company reported ($0.45) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.42) by ($0.03). Liquidia had a negative net margin of 765.38% and a negative return on equity of 163.21%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Liquidia Co. will post -1.51 earnings per share for the current 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).