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 company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.23, for a total transaction of $291,680.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,562,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $46,720,080.99. This trade represents a 0.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LBRT stock traded up $0.07 during trading hours 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 firm has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a PE ratio of 8.73 and a beta of 1.71. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $18.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.26. Liberty Energy Inc. has a one year low of $16.57 and a one year high of $24.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.23.

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

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be given a $0.08 dividend. This is a boost from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Liberty Energy by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $345,821,000 after buying an additional 2,640,119 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 15.9% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,012,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,866,000 after acquiring an additional 963,068 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 2.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,662,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,193,000 after acquiring an additional 176,887 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP grew its position 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 worth $79,408,000 after purchasing an additional 699,500 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Liberty Energy by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,754,000 after purchasing an additional 594,051 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have weighed in on LBRT shares. Citigroup cut Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Atb Cap Markets cut shares of Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target 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. Evercore ISI raised Liberty Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target 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.