Sanford C. Bernstein Cuts Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Price Target to $190.00

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its price objective trimmed by Sanford C. Bernstein from $199.00 to $190.00 in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

FANG has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Mizuho set a $194.00 target price on Diamondback Energy in a report on Friday, December 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $173.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Roth Capital set a $162.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $174.00 to $194.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $188.67.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Shares of FANG opened at $140.46 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $149.13 and its 200-day moving average price is $144.81. Diamondback Energy has a 1-year low of $114.00 and a 1-year high of $180.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.23 billion, a PE ratio of 9.76 and a beta of 0.59.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $3.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.48 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 9.57% and a net margin of 27.32%.The firm’s revenue was up 48.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Diamondback Energy will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 13th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.80%.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In other news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 377,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.61, for a total transaction of $52,382,243.71. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,044,864 shares in the company, valued at $144,828,599.04. This trade represents a 26.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Diamondback Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 1.7% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,325,287 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $3,204,894,000 after buying an additional 388,512 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,733,538 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $821,649,000 after acquiring an additional 163,548 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 2.7% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,441,649 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $746,526,000 after acquiring an additional 142,649 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 9.0% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,642,218 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $637,841,000 after acquiring an additional 384,971 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 38.0% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,798,812 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $543,610,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,398 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

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.