Morgan Stanley Upgrades Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) to “Overweight”

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) was upgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $25.00 price target on the stock, up from their previous price target of $20.00. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 58.45% from the company’s current price.

LBRT has been the topic of a number of other reports. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Liberty Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Monday, March 24th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Liberty Energy from $24.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised Liberty Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 5th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on Liberty Energy from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.90.

Liberty Energy Price Performance

Shares of LBRT opened at $15.78 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.49. The stock has a market cap of $2.55 billion, a PE ratio of 8.44 and a beta of 1.58. Liberty Energy has a 1-year low of $13.86 and a 1-year high of $24.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

Liberty Energy (NYSE:LBRT) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.16 by ($0.06). Liberty Energy had a net margin of 7.32% and a return on equity of 14.28%. As a group, analysts forecast that Liberty Energy will post 0.58 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Liberty Energy

In other Liberty Energy news, CFO Michael Stock sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.51, for a total transaction of $97,550.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 700,207 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,661,038.57. This trade represents a 0.71 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders sold 40,000 shares of company stock valued at $808,350 over the last three months. 1.90% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Liberty Energy by 17.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,115,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $345,821,000 after purchasing an additional 2,640,119 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Liberty Energy by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,662,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,193,000 after purchasing an additional 176,887 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Liberty Energy by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,178,089 shares of the company’s stock worth $102,992,000 after buying an additional 505,634 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Liberty Energy by 83.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,828,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,043,000 after buying an additional 2,197,352 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Liberty Energy by 5.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,779,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $72,173,000 after buying an additional 207,527 shares during the last quarter. 98.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.