Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Cut to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report released on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on Liberty Energy from $38.00 to $34.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on Liberty Energy from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 24th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.09.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 1.3%

LBRT opened at $18.96 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $25.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.14. Liberty Energy has a 52 week low of $9.90 and a 52 week high of $34.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market cap of $3.09 billion, a PE ratio of 25.62, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.60.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 1.14% and a net margin of 2.92%.The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is presently 48.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 9,999 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.89, for a total value of $258,874.11. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 773,711 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,031,377.79. The trade was a 1.28% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Arjun N. Murti purchased 14,053 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were bought at an average price of $17.79 per share, with a total value of $250,002.87. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 41,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $740,437.59. This represents a 50.98% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 46,662 shares of company stock worth $1,424,491 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 79.6% in the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the first quarter worth $26,000. Summit Securities Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Kelleher Financial Advisors purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the third quarter valued at $29,000. Institutional investors own 98.22% 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. 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.