Quest Partners LLC Purchases 39,497 Shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Quest Partners LLC grew its stake in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 168.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 62,979 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 39,497 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Liberty Energy were worth $1,202,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Canoe Financial LP raised its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 20.4% in the third quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 4,124,695 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,408,000 after acquiring an additional 699,500 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 17.6% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,754,000 after acquiring an additional 594,051 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 2.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 67,362 shares during the last quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 48.0% in the second quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc. now owns 1,981,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,385,000 after acquiring an additional 642,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LSV Asset Management raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 280,550 shares during the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Liberty Energy Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE LBRT opened at $17.36 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.23. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.57 and a 52-week high of $24.75. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $18.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.57. The stock has a market cap of $2.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.26 and a beta of 1.70.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The company had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 1.75 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. This is a positive change from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is presently 13.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on LBRT shares. Citigroup downgraded shares of Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.89.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 750,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,011,642.07. The trade was a 1.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.77, for a total transaction of $395,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,638,813 shares in the company, valued at approximately $52,169,333.01. This represents a 0.75 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 99,037 shares of company stock valued at $1,911,802. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.