Morgan Stanley Lowers Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Price Target to $184.00

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $184.00 in a research report released on Monday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a sector outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $186.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Truist Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $250.00 to $248.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $195.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Diamondback Energy from an underperform rating to a neutral rating and upped their target price for the stock from $129.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Monday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $195.95.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

FANG stock opened at $199.60 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $188.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $167.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.60 billion, a PE ratio of 11.51 and a beta of 1.93. Diamondback Energy has a fifty-two week low of $123.41 and a fifty-two week 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.61 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.16 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 37.36% and a return on equity of 19.56%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.29 EPS. Analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy will post 18.52 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a $3.08 dividend. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $12.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.76%.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In related news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,523 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,532,416. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Diamondback Energy news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $384,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,532,416. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Jere W. Thompson III sold 2,675 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.35, for a total transaction of $514,536.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,485 shares in the company, valued at $1,632,089.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 57,675 shares of company stock worth $11,311,096. Insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Founders Capital Management raised its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 404.0% in the 1st quarter. Founders Capital Management now owns 126 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares during the period. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. BluePath Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Logan Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $31,000. 90.01% of the stock is owned by 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.