Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Earns “Buy” Rating from Benchmark

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Benchmark in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $154.00 price target on the oil and natural gas company’s stock. Benchmark’s price target points to a potential downside of 19.32% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $224.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 23rd. KeyCorp increased their target price on Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $227.00 to $224.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $209.35.

Diamondback Energy Trading Down 1.0 %

FANG stock opened at $190.88 on Thursday. Diamondback Energy has a one year low of $123.41 and a one year high of $211.96. The company has a market capitalization of $34.04 billion, a PE ratio of 10.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.90. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $197.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $179.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 0.92.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.29 by $0.21. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 36.71%. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.10 EPS. Diamondback Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 15.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Diamondback Energy will post 19.05 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, VP Jere W. Thompson III sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.90, for a total value of $179,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 7,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,516,241.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, VP Jere W. Thompson III sold 900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.90, for a total value of $179,910.00. Following the sale, the vice president now owns 7,585 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,516,241.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $6,000,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 446,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,322,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 36,900 shares of company stock valued at $7,362,750 over the last ninety days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Diamondback Energy

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 38.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 8,609,143 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $1,706,076,000 after buying an additional 2,381,488 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 235.6% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,730,482 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $541,844,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916,900 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 4.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,266,640 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,209,617,000 after purchasing an additional 648,317 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 143.0% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 981,284 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $152,177,000 after purchasing an additional 577,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Homestead Advisers Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy in the 1st quarter worth $87,940,000. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

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.