Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Given New $225.00 Price Target at Scotiabank

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its price target dropped by research analysts at Scotiabank from $245.00 to $225.00 in a research note issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “sector outperform” rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock. Scotiabank’s price objective points to a potential upside of 15.07% from the company’s current price.

FANG has been the subject of several other reports. Johnson Rice downgraded Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Diamondback Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $182.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $185.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $237.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Finally, Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $201.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $208.59.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FANG traded up $1.79 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $195.54. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 654,947 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,729,823. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $187.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $195.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 3.66 and a quick ratio of 3.64. Diamondback Energy has a fifty-two week low of $145.70 and a fifty-two week high of $214.50. The company has a market capitalization of $34.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.89.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.51 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.48 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.19 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 37.51% and a return on equity of 19.54%. Diamondback Energy’s revenue was up 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.68 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Diamondback Energy will post 18.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Diamondback Energy

In related news, major shareholder Lyndal Greth sold 13,212,830 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $175.11, for a total transaction of $2,313,698,661.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,037,819 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $181,732,485.09. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FANG. Quent Capital LLC lifted its position in Diamondback Energy by 7.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 809 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $162,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC boosted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 67.1% during the second quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 137 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the 2nd quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,975 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $3,999,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 16.1% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 412 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,667 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $734,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. 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.