Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Given New $27.00 Price Target at Royal Bank of Canada

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) had its price objective increased by Royal Bank of Canada from $25.00 to $27.00 in a report released on Friday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the stock.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America boosted their target price 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $24.30.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

Shares of Liberty Energy stock opened at $22.12 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Liberty Energy has a 1-year low of $11.62 and a 1-year high of $23.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.07, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.85.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 18th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 26.46% and a net margin of 10.43%. The firm had revenue of $1.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. Liberty Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 2.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, June 6th will be issued a $0.07 dividend. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 5th. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 10.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.27, for a total value of $405,400.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,830,402 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $57,372,248.54. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, 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 value of $123,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 140,706 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,884,473. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.27, for a total transaction of $405,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,830,402 shares in the company, valued at approximately $57,372,248.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 98,459 shares of company stock valued at $2,077,491 in the last 90 days. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 93.9% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 4,587,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,210,000 after buying an additional 2,221,588 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 455.5% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,536,812 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,462,000 after buying an additional 1,260,142 shares in the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Liberty Energy during the 4th quarter worth about $21,278,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 20,546,529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $380,522,000 after purchasing an additional 893,563 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 4,473.9% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 836,470 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,491,000 after purchasing an additional 818,182 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.