Stifel Nicolaus Cuts Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Price Target to $23.00

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) had its price objective cut by Stifel Nicolaus from $25.00 to $23.00 in a report issued on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the stock.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on LBRT. Citigroup upped their price objective on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Liberty Energy from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $14.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.40.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

Shares of Liberty Energy stock opened at $12.05 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.27. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $14.92 and its 200 day moving average is $17.69. The stock has a market cap of $1.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 1.18. Liberty Energy has a one year low of $9.50 and a one year high of $24.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 16th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.03 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 7.32% and a return on equity of 14.28%. The firm had revenue of $977.46 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $960.64 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.48 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 20th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 6th. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 17.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

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

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 604.9% in the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,460 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 2,111 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 257.8% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 2,197 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 1,583 shares during the period. Spire Wealth Management acquired a new stake in Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $60,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Liberty Energy by 176.3% during the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,423 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 2,184 shares during the period. Finally, Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $99,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

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.