Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Hits New 1-Year High at $23.31

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $23.31 and last traded at $22.62, with a volume of 558445 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $21.52.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LBRT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler upped their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.67.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average of $21.09 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The company has a market cap of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.85.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 17th. The company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 11.72% and a return on equity of 32.28%. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be paid a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 6th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 8.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.66, for a total transaction of $453,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,858,814 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,780,725.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.66, for a total transaction of $453,200.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,858,814 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,780,725.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Ryan T. Gosney sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total value of $123,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 140,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,884,473. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 98,459 shares of company stock valued at $2,077,491. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of LBRT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,546,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $380,522,000 after buying an additional 893,563 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in Liberty Energy by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,720,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $196,816,000 after acquiring an additional 1,376,187 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,553,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $172,948,000 after acquiring an additional 734,764 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,443,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $171,314,000 after purchasing an additional 404,211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Macquarie Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 181.5% in the first quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 8,085,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,574,000 after purchasing an additional 5,213,132 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.