HighTower Advisors LLC Raises Position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 10.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 27,683 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,568 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Liberty Energy were worth $551,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Quarry LP grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 237.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,991 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 1,401 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 604.9% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,460 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 2,111 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Liberty Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $60,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Liberty Energy by 176.3% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,423 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 2,184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 60.7% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 7,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $157,000 after acquiring an additional 2,978 shares during the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LBRT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded Liberty Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $19.00 in a report on Monday, March 24th. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Liberty Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Thursday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.90.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total value of $115,000.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 675,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,529,761. The trade was a 0.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 40,000 shares of company stock valued at $808,350. Company insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Liberty Energy stock opened at $15.78 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.48. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.86 and a 12 month high of $24.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.44 and a beta of 1.58. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.10 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%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.03%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 17.11%.

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.