Liberty Energy Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:LBRT)

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 8,817 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 3,118% compared to the typical daily volume of 274 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.01, for a total transaction of $300,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 750,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,011,642.07. This trade represents a 1.96 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.77, for a total transaction of $395,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,638,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,169,333.01. The trade was a 0.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,037 shares of company stock worth $1,911,802 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 45.1% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 495,578 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,461,000 after acquiring an additional 154,070 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Liberty Energy by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 872,215 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,651,000 after purchasing an additional 37,927 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 114.2% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 174,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,611,000 after purchasing an additional 92,923 shares in the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in Liberty Energy in the first quarter valued at about $690,000. Finally, BOKF NA purchased a new position in Liberty Energy in the first quarter valued at about $1,490,000. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

LBRT has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup downgraded Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI raised Liberty Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Atb Cap Markets downgraded shares of Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong 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 $22.89.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

LBRT opened at $17.73 on Tuesday. Liberty Energy has a 1 year low of $16.57 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.90 billion, a PE ratio of 8.44 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.23.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. 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. This is an increase from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 15.24%.

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.