Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Upgraded at Freedom Capital

Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Tuesday morning,Zacks.com reports.

FANG has been the subject of several other research reports. Scotiabank set a $175.00 price target on Diamondback Energy in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $182.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $178.00 to $185.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $215.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Benchmark lowered shares of Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $191.67.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Diamondback Energy stock traded up $4.41 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $181.42. 1,500,593 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,725,279. Diamondback Energy has a fifty-two week low of $114.00 and a fifty-two week high of $186.65. The company has a current ratio of 0.42, a quick ratio of 0.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The firm has a market cap of $51.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $163.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $152.16.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.26). Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 8.08%. The business had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.41 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.67 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $1.05 per share. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Diamondback Energy

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 7,857 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.27, for a total value of $1,439,952.39. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 974,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $178,532,287.23. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Travis D. Stice sold 36,043 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.08, for a total transaction of $6,526,666.44. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 123,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,407,744.60. This trade represents a 22.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders sold 1,168,462 shares of company stock valued at $192,197,747. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of FANG. Vise Technologies Inc. purchased a new stake in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter valued at about $962,000. National Pension Service raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 0.6% during the second quarter. National Pension Service now owns 338,131 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $46,459,000 after buying an additional 2,005 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 13.6% during the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 53,795 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $7,391,000 after buying an additional 6,420 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 2.7% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 28,748 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $3,950,000 after acquiring an additional 1,332 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

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.