Great Lakes Advisors LLC Cuts Stake in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Great Lakes Advisors LLC lessened its stake in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 125,924 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,001 shares during the quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC owned about 0.08% of Liberty Energy worth $2,505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 93.2% during the 3rd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 4,180 shares of the company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 2,016 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 872,215 shares of the company’s stock valued at $16,651,000 after acquiring an additional 37,927 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 96.8% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 838 shares during the last quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D boosted its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 94,953 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after acquiring an additional 15,810 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at about $619,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.22% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 20,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.82, for a total transaction of $416,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 680,207 shares in the company, valued at $14,161,909.74. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 40,000 shares of company stock worth $808,350 over the last quarter. Insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

NYSE LBRT opened at $14.55 on Friday. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $13.85 and a 12 month high of $24.75. The stock has a market cap of $2.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.78 and a beta of 1.58. The company’s 50 day moving average is $18.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $18.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 14.28% and a net margin of 7.32%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is currently 17.11%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on LBRT. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Atb Cap Markets upgraded shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $19.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.30.

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.