Citigroup Lowers Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) to Neutral

Citigroup cut shares of Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note released on Friday, MarketBeat reports. Citigroup currently has $19.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $25.00.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on LBRT. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 19th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Bank of America decreased their price objective on Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.70.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

LBRT stock opened at $17.70 on Friday. Liberty Energy has a twelve month low of $16.69 and a twelve month high of $24.75. The firm has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.46, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.68. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 22.85% and a net margin of 9.53%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Liberty Energy will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This is a positive change from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 11.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.92, for a total transaction of $458,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 765,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,538,544.44. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 95,000 shares of company stock worth $1,945,650 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of LBRT. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 27.7% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,273 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,000 after buying an additional 709 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 14.1% during the 1st quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,338,400 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,732,000 after acquiring an additional 165,400 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 20,617 shares of the company’s stock valued at $427,000 after purchasing an additional 507 shares during the last quarter. AlphaMark Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the first quarter valued at about $348,000. Finally, Edge Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the first quarter worth about $253,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% 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.