Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Short Interest Down 15.3% in August

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 17,070,000 shares, a drop of 15.3% from the August 15th total of 20,150,000 shares. Approximately 10.7% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.7 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.26, for a total transaction of $405,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,758,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,893,551.38. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.26, for a total value of $405,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,758,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,893,551.38. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,626 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.82, for a total transaction of $325,333.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 789,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,439,076.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 95,000 shares of company stock worth $1,979,181 over the last three months. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in Liberty Energy in the 4th quarter valued at about $39,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 58.4% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 56,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,031,000 after acquiring an additional 20,939 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 13,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $249,000 after acquiring an additional 3,059 shares during the period. Quadrant Capital Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,909 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $13,877,000. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Citigroup raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 19th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.78.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

NYSE LBRT remained flat at $20.77 during trading hours on Wednesday. 222,203 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,507,907. The company has a market cap of $3.46 billion, a PE ratio of 7.58, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.35. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $20.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $21.46. Liberty Energy has a 12-month low of $16.33 and a 12-month high of $24.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 22.85%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 2.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be issued a $0.07 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 10.22%.

About Liberty Energy

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.