Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Stock Rating Upgraded by Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

LBRT has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays cut their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, Atb Cap Markets lowered Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six investment 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.70.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LBRT opened at $17.70 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Liberty Energy has a 1 year low of $16.69 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.03 and a 200 day simple moving average of $21.31. The firm has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.68.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 22.85% and a net margin of 9.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. Liberty Energy’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Liberty Energy will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This is an increase 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%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 11.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.77, for a total transaction of $395,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,638,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,169,333.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.77, for a total transaction of $395,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,638,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,169,333.01. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.01, for a total value of $105,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 745,207 shares in the company, valued at $15,656,799.07. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 95,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,945,650 over the last three months. 3.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LBRT. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC bought a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $27,809,000. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its position in Liberty Energy by 48.0% in the 2nd quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,981,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,385,000 after purchasing an additional 642,700 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,754,000 after acquiring an additional 594,051 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management raised its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 60.2% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,437,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,775,000 after acquiring an additional 539,861 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 345.4% during the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 573,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,974,000 after acquiring an additional 444,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

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.