Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the target of a large decline in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 14,690,000 shares, a decline of 14.0% from the December 15th total of 17,080,000 shares. Approximately 9.3% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,800,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 5.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In related news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,037 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.15, for a total value of $36,971.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,578,813 shares in the company, valued at $46,805,455.95. The trade was a 0.08 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total value of $115,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 675,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,529,761. The trade was a 0.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 82,973 shares of company stock valued at $1,586,335 in the last quarter. 3.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liberty Energy

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in LBRT. FMR LLC grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 17.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $345,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,119 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 15.9% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,012,382 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,866,000 after purchasing an additional 963,068 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 2.7% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,662,830 shares of the company’s stock worth $127,193,000 after purchasing an additional 176,887 shares during the period. Canoe Financial LP grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 699,500 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 5.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,779,906 shares of the company’s stock worth $72,173,000 after purchasing an additional 207,527 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LBRT. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price 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. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Atb Cap Markets upgraded Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.20.

Liberty Energy Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of LBRT traded down $0.46 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $22.67. 3,402,142 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,333,240. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. Liberty Energy has a 1 year low of $16.57 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.79 and a beta of 1.66. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $19.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.73.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its earnings results 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). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 8.02% and a return on equity of 18.50%. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. Liberty Energy’s quarterly revenue was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.