Liberty Energy Inc. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.07 (NYSE:LBRT)

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 16th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a dividend of 0.07 per share on Friday, September 20th. This represents a $0.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th.

Liberty Energy has raised its dividend payment by an average of 63.9% per year over the last three years. Liberty Energy has a dividend payout ratio of 9.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Liberty Energy to earn $2.68 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.28 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.4%.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

NYSE:LBRT opened at $22.14 on Thursday. Liberty Energy has a 1 year low of $14.75 and a 1 year high of $24.75. The stock has a market cap of $3.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.08, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.74. The business has a fifty day moving average of $21.97 and a 200-day moving average of $21.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.48.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 17th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. Liberty Energy had a return on equity of 26.46% and a net margin of 10.43%. The company’s revenue was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.87 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Liberty Energy will post 2.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Ryan T. Gosney sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.50, for a total value of $47,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 170,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,015,727. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Ryan T. Gosney sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.50, for a total value of $47,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 170,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,015,727. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Ron Gusek sold 50,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.99, for a total value of $1,149,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 1,213,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,892,824.41. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 176,000 shares of company stock valued at $3,932,731. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on LBRT. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $26.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Citigroup raised Liberty Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $24.00 to $32.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $24.00 target price on shares of Liberty Energy in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Liberty Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $25.00.

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.