Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Makes New $629,000 Investment in Liberty Energy Inc. $LBRT

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 34,100 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $629,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of LBRT. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 78.5% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 8,575,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,826,000 after purchasing an additional 3,771,724 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 1,529.2% in the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,753,357 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,976,000 after purchasing an additional 2,584,359 shares in the last quarter. Sourcerock Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the second quarter worth about $23,653,000. Cooper Creek Partners Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the third quarter worth about $22,336,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 28.2% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 7,809,390 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,368,000 after purchasing an additional 1,716,007 shares in the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other news, insider R Sean Elliott sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.40, for a total value of $635,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 343,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,716,010. This represents a 6.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Arjun N. Murti acquired 9,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $25.79 per share, with a total value of $250,059.84. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 27,568 shares in the company, valued at approximately $710,978.72. This represents a 54.25% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Barclays lifted their price target on Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 7th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $30.17.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

LBRT stock opened at $33.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 2.21 and a quick ratio of 1.97. Liberty Energy Inc. has a one year low of $9.90 and a one year high of $34.42. The stock has a market cap of $5.48 billion, a PE ratio of 37.15 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $22.68.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.19. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 3.71% and a return on equity of 1.41%. The business had revenue of $1.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $954.71 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.04 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Liberty Energy Inc. will post -0.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 4th will be issued a $0.09 dividend. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.56%.

Liberty Energy 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. As of as of December 31, 2023, the company owned and operated a fleet of approximately 40 active hydraulic fracturing; and two sand mines in the Permian Basin.