Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Receives $22.89 Consensus PT from Analysts

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, five have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $22.89.

A number of research firms have issued reports on LBRT. Atb Cap Markets lowered Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Citigroup lowered shares of Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Liberty Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

NYSE LBRT opened at $17.73 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.44 and a beta of 1.70. Liberty Energy has a 1 year low of $16.57 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.63.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.85 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Liberty Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. This is a boost from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is presently 15.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.01, for a total value of $300,150.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 750,207 shares in the company, valued at $15,011,642.07. This represents a 1.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.91, for a total value of $398,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,678,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,335,166.83. The trade was a 0.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 99,037 shares of company stock worth $1,911,802 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LBRT. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 45.1% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 495,578 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,461,000 after acquiring an additional 154,070 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Liberty Energy by 4.5% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 872,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,651,000 after purchasing an additional 37,927 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Liberty Energy by 114.2% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 174,265 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,611,000 after purchasing an additional 92,923 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new stake in Liberty Energy during the 1st quarter worth about $690,000. Finally, BOKF NA acquired a new position in Liberty Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,490,000. 98.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Liberty Energy

Liberty Energy Inc provides hydraulic services and related technologies to onshore oil and natural gas exploration, and production companies in North America. The company offers hydraulic fracturing services, including complementary services, such as wireline services, proppant delivery solutions, field gas processing and treating, compressed natural gas (CNG) delivery, data analytics, related goods comprising sand mine operations, and technologies; and well site fueling and logistics.