Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) Hits New 52-Week Low – Should You Sell?

Liberty Global Ltd (NASDAQ:LBTYA)’s share price hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $8.77 and last traded at $8.7750, with a volume of 1219375 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $9.10.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on LBTYA shares. UBS Group reduced their target price on Liberty Global from $12.10 to $11.90 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liberty Global in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Liberty Global from $13.00 to $10.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.22.

Liberty Global Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $10.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.02 billion, a PE ratio of -0.99 and a beta of 0.99.

Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, July 24th. The company reported ($1.07) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.48) by ($0.59). The firm had revenue of $1.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.34 billion. Liberty Global had a negative return on equity of 28.83% and a negative net margin of 62.12%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Liberty Global Ltd will post -1.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Global

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its stake in shares of Liberty Global by 94.8% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 349,916 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,979,000 after buying an additional 170,328 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Liberty Global by 8.4% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 3,245,059 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,896,000 after buying an additional 251,727 shares during the last quarter. Amundi bought a new position in Liberty Global during the first quarter valued at approximately $6,196,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Liberty Global during the second quarter valued at approximately $3,529,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in Liberty Global by 16.4% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 675,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,162,000 after acquiring an additional 95,244 shares during the last quarter. 37.20% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Liberty Global

Liberty Global plc is an international telecommunications and media company that invests in and operates broadband, mobile, fixed-line voice and television businesses. Its services generally include high-speed internet, wireless connectivity, digital television, streaming and related communications products for residential and business customers.

The company has operations and strategic interests across Europe. Its portfolio includes Sunrise in Switzerland and Telenet in Belgium, while Liberty Global also holds significant joint-venture interests in Virgin Media O2 in the United Kingdom and VodafoneZiggo in the Netherlands.