Liberty Global plc (NASDAQ:LBTYA) saw a downside of -5.98% to close Monday at $16.97 after subtracting -$1.08 on the day. The 5-day average trading volume is 1,659,860 shares of the company’s common stock. It has gained $18.90 in the past week and touched a new high 2 times within the past 5 days. An average of 2,666,465 shares of the company has been traded in the last 20 days, and the 50-day average volume stands at 2,024,784.
LBTYA’s 1-month performance is -3.74% or -$0.50 on its low of $16.94 reached on 09/25/23. The company’s shares have touched a 52-week low of $15.22 and high of $22.09, with the stock’s rally to the 52-week high happening on 02/02/23. YTD, LBTYA has lost -10.35% or -$1.96 and has reached a new high 9 times. However, the current price is down -23.18% from the 52-week high price.
Insider Transactions
LBTYA stock investors last saw insider trading activity on Sep 21.BRACKEN CHARLES H R (EVP & CFO) most recently sold 52,577 shares at $19.51 per share on Sep 21. This transaction cost the insider $1,025,555. SVP & CAO, Waldron Jason, sold 9,714 shares at a price of $19.46 on Sep 13. Then, on Sep 12, SVP & CAO Waldron Jason sold 2,329 shares at a price of $19.01 per share. This transaction amounted to $44,263.
Valuation Metrics
LBTYA stock has a beta of 1.26. Moving on to other valuation ratios, the trailing price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 0.99 while the price-to-book (PB) in the most recent quarter is 0.33, with the price to cash flow ratio at 3.70.
Liberty Global plc’s quick ratio for the period ended June 29 was 1.45, with the current ratio over the same period at 1.45. As well, the company’s long term debt to equity for the quarter ending June 29 was 0.73, while the total debt to equity was 0.77. In terms of profitability, the gross margin trailing 12 months is 23.95%. The trailing 12-month EBITDA margin is 33.54% while for the period ending June 29, Liberty Global plc’s operating margin was 1.16%. The firm’s gross profit as reported stood at $5.11 billion against revenue of $7.2 billion.
Earnings Surprise
For the quarterly period ending June 29 this year, Net income and sales went down compared to those figures reported in the previous quarter. Net income grew 657.77% to -$499.6 million, while revenue of -$721.4 million was -44.4% off the previous quarter. Analysts expected LBTYA to announce -$0.29 per share in earnings in its latest quarter, but it posted -$0.44, representing a -51.70% surprise. EBITDA for the quarter stood at more than $540.6 million. LBTYA stock balance sheet for the quarter ending June 29 shows that total liabilities totaled 22.0 billion, with total debt at $17.75 billion. Shareholders hold equity totaling $424.33 million.
Let’s look briefly at Liberty Global plc (LBTYA) price momentum from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index as at close on 25 September was 28.69% to suggest the stock is trending oversold, with historical volatility in this time period at 34.81%.
The stock’s 5-day moving average is $18.07, reflecting a -9.35% or -$1.75 change from its current price. LBTYA is currently trading -2.86% above its 20-day SMA, -9.20% above its 100-day SMA. However, the stock’s current price level is away from the SMA50 by -5.51% and SMA200 by-10.97%.
Stochastic %K and %D was 35.63% and 56.46% and the average true range (ATR) pointed at 0.50. The RSI (14) points at 35.86%, while the 14-day stochastic is at 1.28% with the period’s ATR at 0.49. The stock’s 9-day MACD Oscillator is pointing at -0.49 and -0.32 on the 14-day charts.
Analyst Ratings
In the most recent analyst report for Liberty Global plc (NASDAQ: LBTYA), Bernstein downgraded it to a Mkt perform rating. They previously had an Outperform rating on the stock. Analysts offering their rating for LBTYA stock have a consensus rating for the stock as Overweight. Currently, 0 brokerage advisors rate LBTYA as a “sell,”, while 6 advise that investors “Hold.” 0 analysts have rated the stock as underweight. 1 rates the stock as overweight while 8 have offered a “buy” rating.
What is LBTYA’s price target for the next 12 months?
Analysts have a consensus price target ranging from a low of $20.00 and a high of $51.00, with their median price target at $25.00. Looking at these predictions, the average price target given by analysts is for Liberty Global plc (LBTYA) stock is $27.99.
