Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Shares Gap Down After Earnings Miss

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after the company announced weaker than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $20.09, but opened at $18.59. Liberty Energy shares last traded at $18.33, with a volume of 785,798 shares trading hands.

The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 22.85%. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This is a positive change from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.81%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 11.68%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup lowered shares of Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.70.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.92, for a total transaction of $458,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 765,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,538,544.44. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 95,000 shares of company stock worth $1,945,650. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Liberty Energy in the second quarter valued at $32,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 69.2% in the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 27.7% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 3,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 709 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 45.0% in the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 43.3% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Stock Down 3.3 %

The company has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a PE ratio of 6.46, a PEG ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.68. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 1.07.

Liberty Energy Company 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.