Piper Sandler Increases Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Price Target to $247.00

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its target price raised by Piper Sandler from $227.00 to $247.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an overweight rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on FANG. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a sector outperform rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and set a $195.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Barclays started coverage on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an equal weight rating and a $214.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $183.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $202.26.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FANG opened at $202.58 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $190.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $168.24. Diamondback Energy has a 1 year low of $123.41 and a 1 year high of $211.96. The company has a market capitalization of $36.13 billion, a PE ratio of 11.68 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.77.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.61 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 37.36% and a return on equity of 19.56%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.29 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Diamondback Energy will post 18.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were given a dividend of $3.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. This is a boost from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $12.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.08%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.76%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Diamondback Energy

In other Diamondback Energy news, COO Daniel N. Wesson sold 6,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.17, for a total transaction of $1,153,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 78,218 shares in the company, valued at $15,031,153.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Diamondback Energy news, COO Daniel N. Wesson sold 6,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.17, for a total transaction of $1,153,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 78,218 shares in the company, valued at $15,031,153.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $6,000,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 446,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,322,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 57,675 shares of company stock worth $11,311,096 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 8.5% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 646,430 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $128,103,000 after purchasing an additional 50,736 shares in the last quarter. Stonegate Investment Group LLC acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $235,000. Sapient Capital LLC grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 4,829.0% during the 1st quarter. Sapient Capital LLC now owns 190,457 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $37,743,000 after acquiring an additional 186,593 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $535,000. Finally, Invera Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 9.5% during the 1st quarter. Invera Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,141 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $1,625,000 after acquiring an additional 704 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

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.