Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) announced its earnings results on Thursday. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.06), Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 10.43% and a return on equity of 26.46%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of LBRT traded up $0.28 on Friday, hitting $22.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,772,818 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,533,495. Liberty Energy has a fifty-two week low of $11.62 and a fifty-two week high of $23.31. The company has a quick ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $21.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.85.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.07 per share. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 5th. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is presently 10.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.66, for a total transaction of $453,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,858,814 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $64,780,725.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.66, for a total transaction of $453,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,858,814 shares in the company, valued at approximately $64,780,725.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Ryan T. Gosney sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total transaction of $123,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 140,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,884,473. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 98,459 shares of company stock worth $2,077,491. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Liberty Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Liberty Energy by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,972,147 shares of the company’s stock valued at $215,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,831,183 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 10.3% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,720,744 shares of the company’s stock worth $196,816,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376,187 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 5.7% during the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 13,553,932 shares of the company’s stock worth $172,948,000 after buying an additional 734,764 shares in the last quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 181.5% during the 1st quarter. Macquarie Group Ltd. now owns 8,085,410 shares of the company’s stock worth $103,574,000 after acquiring an additional 5,213,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 47.3% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,528,916 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,444,000 after acquiring an additional 2,417,129 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.30.

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.