Analyzing Liberty Energy (LBRT) and Its Rivals

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) is one of 179 public companies in the “Energy Equipment & Services” industry, but how does it contrast to its competitors? We will compare Liberty Energy to similar businesses based on the strength of its institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, profitability, earnings, dividends and valuation.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Liberty Energy and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Liberty Energy	0	6	8	0	2.57
Liberty Energy Competitors	1686	6862	8647	491	2.45

Liberty Energy currently has a consensus target price of $26.42, suggesting a potential upside of 102.52%. As a group, “Energy Equipment & Services” companies have a potential upside of 32.50%. Given Liberty Energy’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Liberty Energy is more favorable than its competitors.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Liberty Energy and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Liberty Energy	$4.01 billion	$147.87 million	54.35
Liberty Energy Competitors	$3.24 billion	$29.44 million	12.77

Liberty Energy has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Liberty Energy is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Liberty Energy pays an annual dividend of $0.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Liberty Energy pays out 150.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Energy Equipment & Services” companies pay a dividend yield of -6.6% and pay out -130.8% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Liberty Energy has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years.

Risk & Volatility

Liberty Energy has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its stock price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Liberty Energy’s competitors have a beta of 0.79, indicating that their average stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Liberty Energy and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Liberty Energy	0.91%	2.13%	0.99%
Liberty Energy Competitors	-10.41%	7.43%	1.51%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

98.2% of Liberty Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 48.5% of shares of all “Energy Equipment & Services” companies are held by institutional investors. 2.0% of Liberty Energy shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 12.2% of shares of all “Energy Equipment & Services” companies are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Liberty Energy beats its competitors on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

About Liberty Energy

Liberty Energy Inc. is a Denver-based oilfield services company that supports onshore oil and natural gas producers, primarily in the United States. Founded in 2011 as Liberty Oilfield Services, the company adopted the Liberty Energy name in 2022. Its core business is hydraulic fracturing, a well-completion technique used to extract oil and natural gas. Liberty also provides related services and equipment, including wireline operations, proppant and logistics solutions, and technologies designed to support wellsite operations.