Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Declares $0.08 Quarterly Dividend

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 22nd, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Thursday, March 20th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 6th.

Liberty Energy has a payout ratio of 25.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Liberty Energy to earn $1.24 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.8%.

Liberty Energy Stock Down 7.5 %

Shares of NYSE LBRT opened at $15.98 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.55 and a beta of 1.63. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $19.51 and a 200-day moving average price of $19.19. Liberty Energy has a 1 year low of $15.83 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 7.32% and a return on equity of 14.28%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LBRT. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Atb Cap Markets raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Liberty Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,936 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.16, for a total value of $56,253.76. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,543,877 shares in the company, valued at approximately $48,740,683.32. The trade was a 0.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.94, for a total transaction of $179,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 717,292 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,868,218.48. The trade was a 1.37 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,936 shares of company stock valued at $1,156,284 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

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.