Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.16 by ($0.06), Zacks reports. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of LBRT traded up $0.58 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $20.63. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,149,889 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,854,551. Liberty Energy has a one year low of $16.57 and a one year high of $24.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.37 billion, a PE ratio of 9.82 and a beta of 1.66. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $19.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $19.79.

Liberty Energy Announces Dividend

The firm 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 $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 6th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. Liberty Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 15.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on LBRT shares. Evercore ISI raised Liberty Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 5th. Atb Cap Markets raised Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Liberty Energy in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $19.00 target price for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.20.

Insider Activity at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,936 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.16, for a total transaction of $56,253.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,543,877 shares in the company, valued at $48,740,683.32. This represents a 0.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.21, for a total value of $86,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 725,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,480,812.47. This represents a 0.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 82,973 shares of company stock worth $1,586,335. 3.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.