Legal & General Group Plc Raises Holdings in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 0.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 437,741 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,511 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.27% of Liberty Energy worth $8,707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 10.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,178,089 shares of the company’s stock valued at $102,992,000 after buying an additional 505,634 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 83.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,828,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,043,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197,352 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,779,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,173,000 after purchasing an additional 207,527 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 61.2% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,146,179 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,061,000 after purchasing an additional 1,193,918 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,433,866 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,410,000 after purchasing an additional 196,619 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Liberty Energy

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.94, for a total transaction of $179,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 717,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,868,218.48. This represents a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Liberty Energy stock opened at $12.05 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Liberty Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.50 and a twelve month high of $24.75. The company has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a PE ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 1.18.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 14.28% and a net margin of 7.32%. The company had revenue of $977.46 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $960.64 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 EPS. Research analysts expect that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.66%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.19%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 5th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Liberty Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $19.40.

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.