South Dakota Investment Council Raises Stock Holdings in Liberty Energy Inc. $LBRT

South Dakota Investment Council lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 72.4% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 292,594 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 122,902 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in Liberty Energy were worth $3,359,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $48,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the first quarter valued at approximately $50,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 281.1% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 3,193 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in Liberty Energy by 45.3% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after purchasing an additional 1,392 shares during the period. Finally, Prudent Man Advisors LLC bought a new position in Liberty Energy during the second quarter valued at $137,000. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on LBRT shares. Piper Sandler set a $16.00 price objective on Liberty Energy and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday, October 19th. Weiss Ratings lowered Liberty Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on Liberty Energy from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price objective on Liberty Energy from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 20th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Liberty Energy has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $16.10.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

NYSE:LBRT opened at $18.36 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.39 and a beta of 0.74. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.50 and a 52-week high of $23.58. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $12.94 and a 200 day moving average of $12.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 16th. The company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.01) by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $947.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $967.05 million. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 4.76% and a return on equity of 1.69%. Liberty Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.45 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, December 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a positive change from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 32.14%.

Liberty Energy 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.