Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $26.4167.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on LBRT. Bank of America raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $34.00 target price on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Piper Sandler upgraded Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $17.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a research report on Monday, December 29th.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other news, Director Arjun N. Murti purchased 9,696 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $25.79 per share, for a total transaction of $250,059.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 27,568 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $710,978.72. The trade was a 54.25% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.38, for a total transaction of $634,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 784,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,918,706.22. This trade represents a 3.09% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Liberty Energy by 60.8% in the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,503,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,216,000 after buying an additional 946,591 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Liberty Energy by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,074,464 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,835,000 after acquiring an additional 99,851 shares in the last quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in Liberty Energy by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 31,658 shares of the company’s stock worth $584,000 after acquiring an additional 976 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 39.9% in the fourth quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 916,637 shares of the company’s stock worth $16,921,000 after purchasing an additional 261,436 shares in the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 96.3% during the fourth quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 46,642 shares of the company’s stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 22,885 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LBRT opened at $27.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.51 billion, a PE ratio of 31.26 and a beta of 0.48. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $23.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.96. Liberty Energy has a 12-month low of $9.50 and a 12-month high of $28.94.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by $0.21. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 3.69% and a return on equity of 1.24%. The firm had revenue of $1.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $880.59 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.10 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 40.45%.

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. 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.