Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT)

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 40,180 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 2,340% compared to the typical daily volume of 1,647 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Liberty Energy in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $19.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Liberty Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Friday, September 18th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $37.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $34.00 to $30.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 27th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $27.54.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liberty Energy news, Director Arjun N. Murti acquired 14,053 shares of Liberty Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $17.79 per share, for a total transaction of $250,002.87. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 41,621 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $740,437.59. This trade represents a 50.98% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael Stock sold 6,666 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.84, for a total value of $132,253.44. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 760,379 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,085,919.36. This represents a 0.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 2.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Liberty Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Root Financial Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Liberty Energy by 79.6% during the 1st quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 914 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Liberty Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new position in Liberty Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Liberty Energy during the first quarter valued at about $39,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 120.0% during the fourth quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 2,200 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the period. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

LBRT traded down $0.17 on Wednesday, hitting $18.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,615,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,442,834. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.58. The firm has a market cap of $2.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 0.61. Liberty Energy has a 12 month low of $11.52 and a 12 month high of $34.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.01. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 2.92% and a return on equity of 1.14%. The business had revenue of $1.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.12 EPS. Liberty Energy’s revenue was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 0.35 EPS for the current year.

Liberty Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 4th were given a $0.09 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 4th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Liberty Energy’s payout ratio is 48.65%.

About Liberty Energy

Liberty Energy Inc is an energy services company that provides specialized equipment, technology and services used in the development of onshore oil and natural gas resources. The company primarily supports exploration and production companies during the well-completion process, with an emphasis on hydraulic fracturing and related operations.

Its services and products include hydraulic fracturing, wireline services, proppant logistics, frac-related equipment, field engineering and operational support.