Natixis Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Natixis Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 17.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,662 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,733 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in Liberty Energy were worth $471,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in LBRT. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Liberty Energy in the 1st quarter worth about $368,000. Boston Partners acquired a new position in shares of Liberty Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,299,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 571.6% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 35,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $718,000 after purchasing an additional 30,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 69.2% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $130,000 after purchasing an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on 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 lowered Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.89.

Liberty Energy Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE LBRT opened at $18.44 on Friday. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.57 and a 12 month high of $24.75. The company has a market cap of $3.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.78 and a beta of 1.70. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.42.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.55 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 8.02%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.85 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The company 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This is an increase from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 15.24%.

Insider Transactions at Liberty Energy

In other news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.77, for a total transaction of $395,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,638,813 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $52,169,333.01. This represents a 0.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.01, for a total value of $300,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 750,207 shares in the company, valued at $15,011,642.07. This trade represents a 1.96 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 99,037 shares of company stock valued at $1,911,802 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

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.