Liberty Energy Inc. $LBRT Shares Acquired by Vanguard Group Inc.

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Liberty Energy Inc. by 6.5% in Q1, owning 11.39% of the company, worth approximately $291.97 million.
• Liberty Energy recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.08 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 2.9%.
• Several analysts have downgraded their price targets for Liberty Energy, with the average target now at $15.05 and a rating of "Moderate Buy."

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT - Free Report) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 18,443,909 shares of the company's stock after buying an additional 1,128,491 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 11.39% of Liberty Energy worth $291,967,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 28.9% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,147,698 shares of the company's stock valued at $42,718,000 after buying an additional 480,957 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 7.9% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,067,391 shares of the company's stock valued at $41,120,000 after buying an additional 151,019 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 6.1% in the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 2,054,615 shares of the company's stock valued at $32,566,000 after buying an additional 118,878 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,147,464 shares of the company's stock valued at $22,823,000 after buying an additional 17,676 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $20,337,000. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

LBRT has been the subject of several analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 28th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 14th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 16th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $15.05.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

LBRT traded up $0.7540 on Friday, hitting $11.3740. 2,797,785 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,464,702. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.16. The business's fifty day moving average is $11.91 and its 200 day moving average is $13.12. Liberty Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $9.50 and a fifty-two week high of $23.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.75 and a beta of 0.67.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The company reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.14 by ($0.02). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 6.01% and a net margin of 5.29%.The company had revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.64 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 4th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 4th. Liberty Energy's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.62%.

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.