First Trust Advisors LP Lowers Position in Liberty Energy Inc. $LBRT

Key Points

• First Trust Advisors reduced its Liberty Energy stake by 36.4% in the first quarter, selling 157,883 shares and retaining 275,854 shares worth approximately $7.95 million. Institutional investors collectively own 98.22% of the company.
• Analyst sentiment remains moderately positive, with seven Buy ratings and six Holds; the average price target is $31.09. Recent actions included Barclays raising its target to $32, while Piper Sandler lowered its target to $34.
• Liberty Energy exceeded quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $0.09 EPS and $1.19 billion in revenue, up 14% year over year. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, representing a 1.9% annualized yield.

First Trust Advisors LP lessened its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT - Free Report) by 36.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 275,854 shares of the company's stock after selling 157,883 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 0.17% of Liberty Energy worth $7,945,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Liberty Energy by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,096,443 shares of the company's stock valued at $334,060,000 after purchasing an additional 97,998 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,233,668 shares of the company's stock worth $265,931,000 after buying an additional 431,269 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 78.5% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,575,840 shares of the company's stock worth $105,826,000 after buying an additional 3,771,724 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 184.7% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 3,287,466 shares of the company's stock worth $60,687,000 after buying an additional 2,132,685 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,213,185 shares of the company's stock worth $59,315,000 after buying an additional 131,278 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on LBRT. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, May 8th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $38.00 to $34.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Zacks Research cut Liberty Energy from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and set a $31.00 price target on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $31.09.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Liberty Energy news, Chairman William F. Kimble sold 7,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.92, for a total value of $249,312.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman directly owned 89,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,046,185.60. The trade was a 7.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 19,998 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.48, for a total transaction of $669,533.04. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 800,375 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $26,796,555. The trade was a 2.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 54,012 shares of company stock worth $1,673,803 in the last 90 days. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 3.9%

Shares of NYSE LBRT opened at $18.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.20, a PEG ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.54. Liberty Energy Inc. has a one year low of $9.90 and a one year high of $34.48. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $25.69 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.12 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th will be given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. Liberty Energy's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.65%.

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. As of as of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated a fleet of approximately 40 active hydraulic fracturing; and two sand mines in the Permian Basin.

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