Bridgewater Associates LP Grows Position in Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT)

Bridgewater Associates LP grew its position in shares of Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT - Free Report) by 285.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 700,814 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 518,830 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP owned about 0.43% of Liberty Energy worth $13,379,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Liberty Energy during the 1st quarter valued at about $368,000. Boston Partners purchased a new stake in Liberty Energy in the 1st quarter valued at $1,299,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 571.6% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 35,248 shares of the company's stock valued at $718,000 after acquiring an additional 30,000 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 69.2% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,743 shares of the company's stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Liberty Energy by 43.3% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,213 shares of the company's stock worth $130,000 after acquiring an additional 1,876 shares in the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on LBRT. Stifel Nicolaus dropped 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. Citigroup cut shares of Liberty Energy from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $25.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Barclays reduced their target price on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Evercore ISI upgraded Liberty Energy to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Liberty Energy from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $22.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.01, for a total value of $105,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 745,207 shares of the company's stock, valued at $15,656,799.07. This trade represents a 0.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Christopher A. Wright sold 2,037 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, November 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $18.15, for a total transaction of $36,971.55. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,578,813 shares of the company's stock, valued at $46,805,455.95. This trade represents a 0.08 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 99,037 shares of company stock worth $1,911,802 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 3.60% of the company's stock.

Liberty Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE LBRT traded down $0.01 during trading on Friday, reaching $18.43. 909,175 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,527,912. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.78 and a beta of 1.70. Liberty Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $16.57 and a 52-week high of $24.75. The company has a 50-day moving average of $18.65 and a 200-day moving average of $20.41.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 16th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.85 EPS. Liberty Energy's revenue for the quarter was down 6.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Liberty Energy Inc. will post 1.75 EPS 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.08 per share. 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. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.74%. Liberty Energy's payout ratio is presently 13.33%.

Liberty Energy Company 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.