Liberty Energy Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:LBRT)

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors bought 8,817 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 3,118% compared to the typical volume of 274 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on LBRT shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Atb Cap Markets lowered shares of Liberty Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective 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. Finally, Citigroup downgraded Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.89.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

LBRT stock traded up $1.01 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $17.91. 6,967,196 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,520,299. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The company has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.43 and a beta of 1.70. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.63. Liberty Energy has a 1-year low of $16.57 and a 1-year high of $24.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.85 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy will post 1.75 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This is a boost from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 15.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,037 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.15, for a total transaction of $36,971.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,578,813 shares in the company, valued at $46,805,455.95. The trade was a 0.08 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.01, for a total value of $105,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 745,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,656,799.07. This represents a 0.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 99,037 shares of company stock worth $1,911,802. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 5.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,779,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,173,000 after buying an additional 207,527 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc increased its position in Liberty Energy by 196.9% in the third quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 37,698 shares of the company’s stock worth $720,000 after purchasing an additional 25,000 shares during the period. Impala Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Liberty Energy by 89.2% during the 3rd quarter. Impala Asset Management LLC now owns 350,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,682,000 after purchasing an additional 165,000 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 197.9% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 286,661 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,471,000 after purchasing an additional 190,445 shares during the period. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 80,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,533,000 after purchasing an additional 18,069 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

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.