Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Short Interest Down 15.3% in August

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 17,070,000 shares, a decrease of 15.3% from the August 15th total of 20,150,000 shares. Currently, 10.7% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,230,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.7 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on LBRT shares. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $21.00 to $20.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 19th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 15th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.78.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,626 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.82, for a total transaction of $325,333.32. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 789,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,439,076.42. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.26, for a total value of $405,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,758,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,893,551.38. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,626 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.82, for a total transaction of $325,333.32. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 789,581 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,439,076.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 95,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,979,181. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of LBRT. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 58.4% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 56,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,031,000 after acquiring an additional 20,939 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 13,719 shares of the company’s stock valued at $249,000 after acquiring an additional 3,059 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 70.8% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 2,909 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 1,206 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $13,877,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:LBRT remained flat at $20.77 during trading on Wednesday. 222,203 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,507,907. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.69. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.46. Liberty Energy has a 52-week low of $16.33 and a 52-week high of $24.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $0.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 22.85%. The company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.87 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Liberty Energy will post 2.17 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a dividend of $0.07 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 10.22%.

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.