Aurora Investment Counsel Cuts Stock Position in Liberty Energy Inc. $LBRT

Aurora Investment Counsel decreased its position in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 85.0% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,810 shares of the company’s stock after selling 72,378 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in Liberty Energy were worth $147,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the first quarter valued at about $50,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 3,193 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the first quarter valued at about $161,000. Finally, Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the first quarter valued at about $162,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 3.8%

Shares of NYSE LBRT opened at $15.91 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.20 and a beta of 0.74. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $9.50 and a 1 year high of $23.58. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.72 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.88.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced 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 firm had revenue of $947.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $967.05 million. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 1.69% and a net margin of 4.76%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.45 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be paid a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. This is an increase from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 28.57%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LBRT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Piper Sandler set a $16.00 price objective on Liberty Energy and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $12.00 price target (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Monday, October 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Sunday. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Liberty Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $14.75.

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.