Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

Liberty Energy Inc. (NYSE:LBRT) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 16th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This is an increase from Liberty Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07.

Liberty Energy has increased its dividend by an average of 63.9% per year over the last three years. Liberty Energy has a payout ratio of 12.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Liberty Energy to earn $2.32 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 12.1%.

Liberty Energy Stock Up 1.3 %

LBRT stock opened at $20.06 on Thursday. Liberty Energy has a 1-year low of $16.69 and a 1-year high of $24.75. The stock has a market cap of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.20 and a beta of 1.68. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.12 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $21.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. Liberty Energy had a net margin of 9.53% and a return on equity of 22.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Liberty Energy will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Liberty Energy

In other news, CFO Michael Stock sold 20,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.92, for a total value of $458,400.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 765,207 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,538,544.44. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 95,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,945,650 in the last quarter. 3.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on LBRT shares. Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Barclays dropped their price target on Liberty Energy from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Liberty Energy from $27.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Liberty Energy from $28.00 to $25.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

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.