Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wolfe Research reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $232.00 to $221.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Seaport Research Partners initiated coverage on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $216.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $222.21.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

FANG stock opened at $199.22 on Friday. Diamondback Energy has a fifty-two week low of $134.30 and a fifty-two week high of $216.90. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $195.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $192.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.47. The company has a market capitalization of $55.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.83 and a beta of 0.43.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $6.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.08 by $0.40. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 8.58%.The company had revenue of $5.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.89 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy will post 20.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Diamondback Energy

In other news, Director Charles Meloy sold 83,334 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.12, for a total value of $15,593,458.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 851,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,338,293.60. The trade was a 8.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Diamondback Energy

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 17,811.7% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 38,857,575 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $6,830,385,000 after buying an additional 38,640,635 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Diamondback Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,303,362,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 31.3% in the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,420,247 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,886,351,000 after acquiring an additional 3,918,943 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its position 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 valued at $821,649,000 after acquiring an additional 163,548 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,621,120 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $844,073,000 after purchasing an additional 14,625 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.