Wells Fargo & Company MN Decreases Position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Wells Fargo & Company MN lessened its position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT - Free Report) by 66.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 124,443 shares of the company's stock after selling 243,568 shares during the quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN owned 0.08% of Liberty Energy worth $2,475,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 83.5% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,828,712 shares of the company's stock worth $96,043,000 after purchasing an additional 2,197,352 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 61.2% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,146,179 shares of the company's stock worth $60,061,000 after buying an additional 1,193,918 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,178,089 shares of the company's stock worth $102,992,000 after acquiring an additional 505,634 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Liberty Energy during the 4th quarter valued at $8,140,000. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Liberty Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $6,792,000. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LBRT has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reissued an "equal weight" rating and set a $11.00 target price (down from $20.00) on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $22.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Cowen reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Morgan Stanley upgraded Liberty Energy from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $20.00 to $25.00 in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $14.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $18.05.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LBRT stock traded down $0.73 on Wednesday, hitting $11.50. The company had a trading volume of 3,113,713 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,743,138. Liberty Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.50 and a twelve month high of $24.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $1.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.15 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $13.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.12.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 16th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.03 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $977.46 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $960.64 million. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 14.28% and a net margin of 7.32%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 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 Friday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.78%. Liberty Energy's payout ratio is 21.19%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 10,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.94, for a total transaction of $179,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 717,292 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,868,218.48. This represents a 1.37 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.90% of the company's stock.

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.