Van Den Berg Management I Inc. Purchases New Position in Liberty Energy Inc. $LBRT

Van Den Berg Management I Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 38,141 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $704,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Liberty Energy by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,096,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $334,060,000 after buying an additional 97,998 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,802,399 shares of the company’s stock valued at $162,494,000 after purchasing an additional 189,829 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 3,771,724 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 1,716,007 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,213,185 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,315,000 after buying an additional 131,278 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Liberty Energy Trading Down 2.6%

Shares of NYSE:LBRT opened at $27.34 on Wednesday. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 12-month low of $9.90 and a 12-month high of $34.48. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.99. The company has a market capitalization of $4.46 billion, a PE ratio of 30.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 22nd. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.19. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 1.41% and a net margin of 3.71%.The business had revenue of $1.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $954.71 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.04 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 4th. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.56%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

LBRT has been the topic of several research reports. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Friday, May 1st. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Liberty Energy from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on Liberty Energy from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 8th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $32.18.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman William F. Kimble sold 7,350 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.92, for a total value of $249,312.00. Following the transaction, the chairman directly owned 89,805 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,046,185.60. This trade represents a 7.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 19,998 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.48, for a total value of $669,533.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 800,375 shares in the company, valued at $26,796,555. This represents a 2.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 44,013 shares of company stock worth $1,414,929 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

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.