Brokerages Set Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Price Target at $29.08

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $30.1667.

LBRT has been the topic of several recent research reports. Bank of America upgraded Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Liberty Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 7th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 4th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their target price on Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th.

Liberty Energy Trading Down 3.4%

LBRT opened at $32.65 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.68. Liberty Energy has a fifty-two week low of $9.90 and a fifty-two week high of $34.42. The company has a market cap of $5.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.88 and a beta of 0.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.97.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $954.71 million. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 1.41%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.04 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy will post -0.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.56%.

Insider Activity at Liberty Energy

In other news, Director Arjun N. Murti bought 9,696 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.79 per share, with a total value of $250,059.84. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 27,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $710,978.72. This trade represents a 54.25% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.38, for a total transaction of $634,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 784,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,918,706.22. This trade represents a 3.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.5% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 94,205 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,491,000 after acquiring an additional 4,095 shares in the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 1,992.2% during the 1st quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 12,030 shares of the company’s stock valued at $190,000 after purchasing an additional 11,455 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 868,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,756,000 after purchasing an additional 4,955 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 22.0% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 81,446 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,289,000 after purchasing an additional 14,663 shares during the period. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $119,000. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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. As of as of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated a fleet of approximately 40 active hydraulic fracturing; and two sand mines in the Permian Basin.