Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Given New $229.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its price objective boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $224.00 to $229.00 in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

FANG has been the topic of several other research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Diamondback Energy from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Truist Financial increased their price target on Diamondback Energy from $248.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Monday. Scotiabank increased their price target on Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a sector outperform rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Raymond James cut their price target on Diamondback Energy from $190.00 to $185.00 and set a strong-buy rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Diamondback Energy currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $202.53.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ FANG opened at $204.37 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $36.45 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79 and a beta of 1.93. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $191.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $168.61. Diamondback Energy has a 1-year low of $123.41 and a 1-year high of $211.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.61 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.56% and a net margin of 37.36%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $5.29 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy will post 18.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a $3.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. This is a boost from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $12.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.03%. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 20.76%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $384,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,532,416. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $6,000,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 446,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,322,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $384,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 96,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,532,416. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 57,675 shares of company stock valued at $11,311,096. 0.43% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,869,787 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $3,391,567,000 after purchasing an additional 176,208 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 4.8% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,266,640 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $2,209,617,000 after purchasing an additional 648,317 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 2.6% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,494,159 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $541,175,000 after purchasing an additional 89,663 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 6.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,320,567 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $514,289,000 after purchasing an additional 206,189 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 39.9% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,007,599 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $465,817,000 after purchasing an additional 858,446 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Diamondback Energy

Diamondback Energy, Inc, an independent oil and natural gas company, acquires, develops, explores, and exploits unconventional, onshore oil and natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin in West Texas. It focuses on the development of the Spraberry and Wolfcamp formations of the Midland basin; and the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring formations of the Delaware basin, which are part of the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico.