Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Shares Bought by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,631,360 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 61,909 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 1.61% of Liberty Energy worth $53,706,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Liberty Energy by 17.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock valued at $345,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,119 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 15.9% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,012,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $133,866,000 after buying an additional 963,068 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP raised its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 20.4% in the 3rd quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 4,124,695 shares of the company’s stock valued at $79,408,000 after buying an additional 699,500 shares during the period. Hennessy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 48.0% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Liberty Energy by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,961,415 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,754,000 after acquiring an additional 594,051 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

LBRT has been the topic of several research reports. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Liberty Energy in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $19.00 price target for the company. Citigroup cut Liberty Energy from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Atb Cap Markets upgraded Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.50.

Liberty Energy Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:LBRT opened at $18.67 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 1 year low of $16.57 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $18.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.94. The stock has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.90 and a beta of 1.71.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.55 by ($0.10). Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 8.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.85 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Liberty Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. This is a boost from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is presently 15.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Liberty Energy news, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 20,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $52,169,333.01. This represents a 0.75 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.21, for a total value of $86,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 725,207 shares in the company, valued at $12,480,812.47. This trade represents a 0.68 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 87,973 shares of company stock worth $1,641,235 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Liberty Energy 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.