Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Evercore ISI

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) was upgraded by analysts at Evercore ISI to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Citigroup lowered shares of Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday. Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 15th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen cut 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.70.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

LBRT opened at $17.69 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $20.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.32. 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 $2.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.46, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.68. Liberty Energy has a 52-week low of $16.69 and a 52-week high of $24.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 22.85%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.85 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Liberty Energy will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.91, for a total value of $398,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,678,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $53,335,166.83. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.91, for a total transaction of $398,200.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,678,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $53,335,166.83. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.23, for a total value of $288,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 730,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,041,880.61. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 95,000 shares of company stock worth $1,945,650 in the last 90 days. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liberty Energy

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 17.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,754,000 after buying an additional 594,051 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 2.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,634,256 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,030,000 after purchasing an additional 67,362 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 48.0% during the second quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,981,100 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,385,000 after purchasing an additional 642,700 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 19.5% in the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 1,717,591 shares of the company’s stock worth $35,880,000 after purchasing an additional 280,550 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Liberty Energy by 34.2% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,498,921 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,312,000 after buying an additional 381,841 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Liberty Energy Company Profile

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.