Citigroup Inc. Increases Stock Position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 95.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 224,165 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 109,489 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned 0.14% of Liberty Energy worth $4,279,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Liberty Energy during the second quarter worth $32,000. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Liberty Energy by 96.8% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,704 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 838 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Liberty Energy by 69.2% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 713 shares during the period. nVerses Capital LLC raised its position in Liberty Energy by 45.0% during the second quarter. nVerses Capital LLC now owns 2,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE raised its position in Liberty Energy by 93.2% during the third quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,180 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 2,016 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on LBRT. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Citigroup cut shares of Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Liberty Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Atb Cap Markets cut shares of Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.91, for a total transaction of $398,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,678,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,335,166.83. This trade represents a 0.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.23, for a total transaction of $288,450.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 730,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,041,880.61. The trade was a 2.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 94,037 shares of company stock valued at $1,796,552. 3.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Liberty Energy Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of LBRT stock opened at $18.58 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a PE ratio of 8.85 and a beta of 1.71. The company has a 50-day moving average of $18.50 and a two-hundred day moving average of $20.27. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $16.57 and a 1-year high of $24.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.85 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. 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 1.72%. This is an increase from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is currently 13.33%.

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.