Liberty Energy Inc. LBRT reported a fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted net income of 10 cents per share, which marginally beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 9 cents. The Denver, CO-based oil and gas equipment company's outperformance indicated a year-over-year decrease in costs and expenses.
However, the bottom line underperformed the year-ago quarter’s reported figure of 54 cents, due to poor equipment and service execution, along with lower activity.
Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.
The company's revenues totaled $943.6 million, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.4%. The top line was also below the prior-year quarter’s level of $1.07 billion by 12.2%.
Liberty Energy Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Liberty Energy Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Liberty Energy Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Liberty Energy Inc. Quote
The company’s adjusted EBITDA was $155.7 million, a decrease from $253 million in the year-ago quarter. The figure also missed our prediction of $170.8 million.
Recently, LBRT and Cummins Inc. CMI, the construction machinery & heavy transportation equipment company, announced their collaboration to introduce the industry’s first natural gas variable speed, large displacement engine for the former’s digiPrime hydraulic fracturing platform. This is set for deployment in the first half of 2025.
Ahead of the earnings release, Liberty Energy’s board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of 8 cents per share to its Class A common shareholders of record as of March 6. The payout, which is unchanged from the previous quarter, will be made on March 20.
The company returned $175 million to its shareholders through the repurchase of 3.8% of shares and quarterly cash dividends in 2024. For the quarter ended, Liberty repurchased and retired 1,581,495 shares of Class A common stock at an average price of $17.88 per share, representing 1% of shares outstanding for a total of around $28 million.
Over the course of the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, the company repurchased and retired 6,320,536 shares at an average price of $20.14 per share, totaling approximately $127 million, which accounted for 3.8% of shares outstanding. Since the repurchase program launched on July 25, 2022, Liberty has repurchased and retired a cumulative 15.1% of shares outstanding. The company currently has about $294 million remaining in repurchase authorization.
The company accelerated the commercial deployment of its digiTechnologies, introducing the innovative technology, which represents a groundbreaking advancement in frac technology by enhancing both efficiency and reducing emissions. It also achieved a record 7,143 pumping hours on a single fleet for the year, averaging nearly 600 hours per month. Additionally, the company expanded Liberty Power Innovations' (“LPI”) natural gas compression, fueling and delivery services infrastructure to its optimal scale. Furthermore, it announced a collaboration between LPI and DC Grid to provide advanced power solutions for commercial fleet electric vehicle hubs and data centers.
For the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, the company achieved a 17% Adjusted Pre-Tax Return on Capital Employed and a 21% Cash Return on Invested Capital.
Costs & Expenses of LBRT
Liberty reported total costs and expenses of $918.7 million in the fourth quarter, decreasing 3.4% from the year-ago quarter’s level. The figure was also lower than our estimation of $950.2 million.
Balance Sheet & Capital Expenditure of LBRT
As of Dec. 31, Liberty had approximately $20 million in cash and cash equivalents. The pressure pumper’s long-term debt of $190.5 million represented a debt-to-capitalization of 8.8%.
Further, the company’s liquidity, cash balance and revolving credit facility amounted to $135 million.
In the reported quarter, this Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) company spent $188.1 million in its capital program, exceeding our estimation of $182 million.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
LBRT’s Management Remarks & Outlook
The company expects global oil markets to continue facing uncertainties from geopolitical factors, Chinese economic growth and OPEC+ production decisions, but anticipates no major changes in E&P activity plans. Natural gas demand is expected to remain robust, supported by LNG export capacity growth and an estimated increase in North America’s power consumption.
For the first quarter, LBRT expects a modest sequential increase in revenues and adjusted EBITDA, with solid free cash flow generation from its completions services business despite pricing headwinds. The company also plans significant investment growth in power infrastructure to capitalize on the rising demand for power.
Liberty expects power demand to rise at the fastest pace since the start of 2025, driven by growing needs from data centers, reshoring manufacturing and increases from mining, electrification and other industrial sectors. Management believes that the company is well-positioned to capture this demand with its modular power solutions, offering reliability, redundancy and the ability to scale quickly to meet the growing infrastructure needs for critical projects.
Important Earnings at a Glance
While we have discussed Liberty’s fourth-quarter results in detail, let us take a look at the two other key reports of this space.
Oil and gas equipment and services provider Halliburton Company HAL posted fourth-quarter 2024 adjusted net income per share of 70 cents, the same as the Zacks Consensus Estimate but below the year-ago quarter’s profit of 86 cents (adjusted). The numbers indicated softer activity in the region of North America, partly offset by improved fluid work in the Gulf of Mexico.
As of Dec. 31, 2024, the company had approximately $2.6 billion in cash/cash equivalents and $7.2 billion in long-term debt, representing a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 40.4. The company generated $1.5 billion of cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter, leading to a free cash flow of $1.1 billion.
Energy infrastructure provider Kinder Morgan KMI reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents, shy of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 33 cents. The lower-than-expected quarterly earnings were primarily due to decreased volumes on certain systems, asset divestitures, and lower crude, CO2 and NGL volumes. KMI’s fourth-quarter DCF was $1.3 billion, up from $1.2 billion a year ago.
As of Dec. 31, 2024, Kinder Morgan reported $88 million in cash and cash equivalents. Its long-term debt amounted to $29.8 billion at the quarter-end. For 2025, Kinder Morgan anticipates a net income of $2.8 billion, up 8% from the prior-year level, and an adjusted EPS of $1.27, up 10%. The company expects to declare dividends of $1.17 per share, up 2% from the prior-year figure. It also anticipates budgeted adjusted EBITDA of $8.3 billion, up 4% from the previous-year level.
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