Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Receives $22.50 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $22.60.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on LBRT shares. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Liberty Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. 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. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.21, for a total transaction of $86,050.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 725,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,480,812.47. This trade represents a 0.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,037 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.15, for a total value of $36,971.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,578,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,805,455.95. The trade was a 0.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 77,973 shares of company stock worth $1,471,335. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Liberty Energy by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $345,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,119 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 15.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,012,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,866,000 after buying an additional 963,068 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 2.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,662,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,193,000 after buying an additional 176,887 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP grew its holdings in Liberty Energy by 20.4% during the third quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 4,124,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,408,000 after acquiring an additional 699,500 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Liberty Energy by 17.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,754,000 after acquiring an additional 594,051 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

Shares of LBRT opened at $21.67 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.32 and a beta of 1.66. Liberty Energy has a fifty-two week low of $16.57 and a fifty-two week high of $24.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $18.48 and its 200 day moving average price is $19.65.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 8.02%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.48%. This is a boost from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is currently 15.24%.

Liberty Energy Company Profile

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.