Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Liberty Energy received an average analyst rating of “Moderate Buy” from 13 brokerages, with seven buy ratings and six hold ratings. The average 1-year price target is about $32.18.
• The company’s latest quarterly results beat expectations, posting $0.06 EPS versus estimates for a loss, and revenue of $1.02 billion topped forecasts while rising 4.5% year over year.
• Liberty Energy also announced a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, payable June 18, which works out to an annualized yield of about 1.2%.

Shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $32.1818.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LBRT. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $31.00 price objective on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley set a $36.00 price objective on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Monday, April 27th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 24th.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LBRT opened at $28.81 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.97, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The business's 50 day moving average price is $30.44 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.79. Liberty Energy has a 52 week low of $9.90 and a 52 week high of $34.48. The stock has a market cap of $4.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 0.51.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 22nd. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.19. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 1.41%. The company had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $954.71 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.04 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 4.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Liberty Energy's payout ratio is presently 39.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Michael Stock sold 19,998 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.48, for a total value of $669,533.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 800,375 shares in the company, valued at $26,796,555. The trade was a 2.44% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, 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 transaction of $249,312.00. Following the sale, the chairman owned 89,805 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,046,185.60. This represents a 7.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 44,013 shares of company stock valued at $1,414,929. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Florida Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy in the 3rd quarter worth $1,318,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,096,443 shares of the company's stock worth $334,060,000 after purchasing an additional 97,998 shares in the last quarter. Round Rock Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 65.3% in the 4th quarter. Round Rock Advisors LLC now owns 104,213 shares of the company's stock worth $1,956,000 after purchasing an additional 41,163 shares in the last quarter. Aventail Capital Group LP increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 94.6% in the 3rd quarter. Aventail Capital Group LP now owns 334,637 shares of the company's stock worth $4,129,000 after purchasing an additional 162,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 23.1% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 273,258 shares of the company's stock worth $3,372,000 after purchasing an additional 51,266 shares in the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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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