Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Upgraded to Overweight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $27.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. UBS Group raised their price target on Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, September 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $23.00 target price on shares of Liberty Energy in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $29.09.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 0.0%

NYSE LBRT opened at $18.95 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The company has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.60, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 0.61. The company has a 50 day moving average of $19.83 and a 200-day moving average of $25.74. Liberty Energy has a 1-year low of $11.52 and a 1-year high of $34.48.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.09 billion. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 1.14% and a net margin of 2.92%.The company’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.12 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 0.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 48.65%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liberty Energy news, Director Arjun N. Murti acquired 14,053 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $17.79 per share, with a total value of $250,002.87. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 41,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $740,437.59. This represents a 50.98% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 9,999 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.89, for a total value of $258,874.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 773,711 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,031,377.79. This represents a 1.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 19,998 shares of company stock valued at $450,955 in the last three months. 2.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.9% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,233,668 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,931,000 after purchasing an additional 431,269 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Liberty Energy by 901.2% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,431,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,616,000 after buying an additional 3,988,535 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Liberty Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $61,185,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Liberty Energy during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,394,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its position in Liberty Energy by 54.3% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 983,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,331,000 after acquiring an additional 346,239 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 is an energy services company that provides specialized equipment, technology and services used in the development of onshore oil and natural gas resources. The company primarily supports exploration and production companies during the well-completion process, with an emphasis on hydraulic fracturing and related operations.

Its services and products include hydraulic fracturing, wireline services, proppant logistics, frac-related equipment, field engineering and operational support.