Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $19.60.

Several research firms recently issued reports on LBRT. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of Liberty Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Monday, March 24th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on Liberty Energy from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays reduced their target price on Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, January 5th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.94, for a total transaction of $179,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 717,292 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,868,218.48. The trade was a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.90% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 61.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,146,179 shares of the company’s stock worth $60,061,000 after acquiring an additional 1,193,918 shares during the period. Harbour Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $498,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 897,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $17,842,000 after purchasing an additional 24,825 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter worth $6,792,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,631,360 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,706,000 after buying an additional 61,909 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of Liberty Energy stock opened at $11.21 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $1.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.99 and a beta of 1.18. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.77. Liberty Energy has a 52-week low of $9.50 and a 52-week 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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 expect that Liberty Energy will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.