Royal Bank of Canada Raises Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) Price Target to $27.00

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) had its target price raised by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from $25.00 to $27.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.59% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on LBRT. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Liberty Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $24.30.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 1.3 %

LBRT traded up $0.29 on Friday, hitting $22.39. The company had a trading volume of 1,420,085 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,947,162. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $21.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.65. Liberty Energy has a 52-week low of $11.62 and a 52-week high of $23.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.49 and a quick ratio of 1.17.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 18th. The company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.54 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 10.43% and a return on equity of 26.90%. The business had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. Liberty Energy’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 2.64 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Liberty Energy

In related news, CAO Ryan T. Gosney sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total transaction of $123,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 140,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,884,473. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Liberty Energy news, CAO Ryan T. Gosney sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.50, for a total value of $123,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 140,706 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,884,473. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.27, for a total transaction of $405,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,830,402 shares in the company, valued at $57,372,248.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 98,459 shares of company stock worth $2,077,491. Insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Liberty Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of LBRT. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 24.7% during the first quarter. Advisor Group Holdings Inc. now owns 13,300 shares of the company’s stock valued at $194,000 after purchasing an additional 2,637 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 129.4% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,089,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,971,000 after acquiring an additional 1,178,716 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 17.4% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 17,607 shares of the company’s stock valued at $261,000 after acquiring an additional 2,607 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 775.0% during the first quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 219,897 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,259,000 after acquiring an additional 194,767 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MetLife Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Liberty Energy by 106.8% during the first quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 49,221 shares of the company’s stock valued at $729,000 after acquiring an additional 25,424 shares during the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.