Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Cut to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Sunday.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on LBRT. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 28th. Finally, Barclays restated an “equal weight” rating and set a $12.00 target price (down previously from $14.00) on shares of Liberty Energy in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Liberty Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.10.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of LBRT opened at $15.92 on Friday. Liberty Energy has a 52 week low of $9.50 and a 52 week high of $23.58. The firm has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.21 and a beta of 0.74. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.81 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.32.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The company reported ($0.06) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by ($0.05). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 4.76% and a return on equity of 1.69%. The company had revenue of $947.40 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $967.05 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.45 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.09 per share. This is a boost from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 4th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is currently 28.57%.

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $29,000. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 213.7% during the 2nd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 3,607 shares of the company’s stock worth $42,000 after acquiring an additional 2,457 shares during the period. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $48,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S bought a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $50,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 281.1% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 3,193 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

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.