Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Purchases Shares of 101,900 Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund purchased a new stake in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 101,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,848,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. CWM LLC grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 59.7% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,000 after buying an additional 1,183 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the third quarter valued at about $97,000. Spirit of America Management Corp NY acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $127,000. Xponance Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $182,000. Finally, Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the third quarter valued at about $190,000. 98.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.30.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.66, for a total value of $453,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,858,814 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,780,725.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director William F. Kimble sold 12,459 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.55, for a total transaction of $268,491.45. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 69,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,507,702.65. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.66, for a total value of $453,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,858,814 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $64,780,725.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 98,459 shares of company stock valued at $2,077,491 over the last three months. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:LBRT opened at $23.01 on Friday. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.62 and a 1 year high of $23.31. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The company has a market capitalization of $3.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 1.85.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 26.46% and a net margin of 10.43%. The company had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. Liberty Energy’s revenue was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be issued a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 5th. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is currently 10.22%.

Liberty Energy 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.