Citigroup Cuts Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Price Target to $27.50

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) had its price objective reduced by Citigroup from $28.50 to $27.50 in a research note published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on LBRT. Barclays upgraded shares of Liberty Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $27.00 in a report on Monday, September 28th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $23.00 target price on Liberty Energy in a report on Friday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen cut Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Liberty Energy from $35.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $27.54.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 4.4%

LBRT stock opened at $19.29 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $19.58 and its 200 day moving average price is $25.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 1.99. Liberty Energy has a fifty-two week low of $11.52 and a fifty-two week high of $34.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.07, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.72.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The firm had revenue of $1.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.12 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy will post 0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, September 4th were given a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 4th. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In related news, CFO Michael Stock sold 6,666 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.84, for a total transaction of $132,253.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 760,379 shares in the company, valued at $15,085,919.36. This trade represents a 0.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Arjun Murti purchased 14,053 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $17.79 per share, with a total value of $250,002.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 41,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $740,437.59. The trade was a 50.98% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. 2.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,233,668 shares of the company’s stock valued at $265,931,000 after purchasing an additional 431,269 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in Liberty Energy by 901.2% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 4,431,125 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,616,000 after buying an additional 3,988,535 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Liberty Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $61,185,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Liberty Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,394,000. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 54.3% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 983,706 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,331,000 after acquiring an additional 346,239 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Company Profile

Liberty Energy Inc is an oilfield services company that provides hydraulic fracturing and related completion services to exploration and production companies. Its operations support the development of unconventional oil and natural gas wells, primarily in North America.

The company’s services and technologies include pressure pumping, well stimulation, wireline services, proppant and logistics solutions, and digital tools designed to improve completion performance and operational efficiency.