Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $246.00 to $243.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $221.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 20th. Scotiabank upped their price target on Diamondback Energy from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Diamondback Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $222.30.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

FANG opened at $198.97 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.72 billion, a PE ratio of 38.79 and a beta of 0.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.45. The business’s 50-day moving average is $190.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $186.39. Diamondback Energy has a 1 year low of $134.30 and a 1 year high of $214.51.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $6.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $6.08 by $0.40. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 10.10%. The business had revenue of $5.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.38 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy will post 19.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 13th. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 85.77%.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In other news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 33,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.41, for a total transaction of $6,613,600.53. Following the sale, the director directly owned 818,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,338,466.77. The trade was a 3.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.90, for a total value of $1,406,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 85,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,228,179.50. The trade was a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 139,167 shares of company stock valued at $26,749,809. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Aurora Investment Counsel acquired a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy during the second quarter worth about $1,314,000. CM Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Diamondback Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $274,000. AssuredPartners Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $285,000. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $299,000. Finally, Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Diamondback Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,467,000. 90.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Diamondback Energy

Diamondback Energy, Inc (NASDAQ: FANG) is an independent oil and natural gas company focused on the development, exploration and production of unconventional resources in the Permian Basin. Headquartered in Midland, Texas, the company concentrates its operations in the core Midland and Delaware sub‑basins of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, where it pursues contiguous acreage positions to support repeatable drilling programs.

Diamondback’s activities span the upstream value chain, including leasehold acquisition, well planning, drilling, completion and production optimization.