Short Interest in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Drops By 14.0%

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 14,690,000 shares, a drop of 14.0% from the December 15th total of 17,080,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,800,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days. Approximately 9.3% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.82, for a total transaction of $416,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 680,207 shares in the company, valued at $14,161,909.74. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,037 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.15, for a total value of $36,971.55. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,578,813 shares in the company, valued at $46,805,455.95. This trade represents a 0.08 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 82,973 shares of company stock worth $1,586,335 over the last quarter. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liberty Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 17.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $345,821,000 after buying an additional 2,640,119 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 61.2% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 3,146,179 shares of the company’s stock valued at $60,061,000 after buying an additional 1,193,918 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 963,068 shares during the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 20.4% during the third quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 4,124,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,408,000 after buying an additional 699,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 285.1% during the third quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 700,814 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,379,000 after buying an additional 518,830 shares during the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Liberty Energy Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE LBRT traded down $0.46 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $22.67. 3,402,142 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,333,240. Liberty Energy has a 52-week low of $16.57 and a 52-week high of $24.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a PE ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 1.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.23. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $19.18 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.73.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its 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). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 1.66 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on LBRT shares. Atb Cap Markets raised Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Citigroup increased their target price on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their price objective on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.20.

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.