Insider Selling: Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) CEO Sells 16,000 Shares of Stock

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 16,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.23, for a total transaction of $291,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,562,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,720,080.99. The trade was a 0.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Liberty Energy Trading Up 0.4 %

LBRT traded up $0.07 during trading on Thursday, reaching $18.40. The company had a trading volume of 2,219,349 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,517,355. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $16.57 and a 52 week high of $24.75. The stock has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.73 and a beta of 1.71. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $18.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.26.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 8.02%. Liberty Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 6th. This is a positive change from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 13.33%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LBRT. FMR LLC grew its position in Liberty Energy by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $345,821,000 after acquiring an additional 2,640,119 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 15.9% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,012,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,866,000 after purchasing an additional 963,068 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 20.4% in the third quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 4,124,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,408,000 after purchasing an additional 699,500 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 48.0% in the second quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,981,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,385,000 after purchasing an additional 642,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in Liberty Energy by 17.6% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,754,000 after buying an additional 594,051 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on LBRT. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup downgraded Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.89.

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.