Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Stock

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its price objective raised by equities researchers at Barclays from $185.00 to $190.00 in a research note issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “overweight” rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 4.27% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on FANG. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Diamondback Energy from $187.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 11th. Scotiabank set a $175.00 target price on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Friday, January 16th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $194.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $180.00 price target on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $199.00 to $190.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $193.38.

Diamondback Energy Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Diamondback Energy stock traded down $0.15 during trading on Monday, reaching $182.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 687,044 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,737,724. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Diamondback Energy has a 52-week low of $114.00 and a 52-week high of $186.65. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $164.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $152.52. The company has a market cap of $51.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.48 and a beta of 0.59.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Chairman Travis D. Stice sold 63,957 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.16, for a total value of $11,586,450.12. Following the sale, the chairman directly owned 305,314 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $55,310,684.24. This represents a 17.32% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 60,605 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.12, for a total transaction of $9,764,677.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 982,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $158,220,806.72. The trade was a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 1,168,462 shares of company stock worth $192,197,747. 0.48% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Diamondback Energy

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FANG. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 1.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,325,287 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $3,204,894,000 after purchasing an additional 388,512 shares during the period. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.9% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,733,538 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $821,649,000 after purchasing an additional 163,548 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the fourth 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. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,159,365 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $775,607,000 after purchasing an additional 532,756 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 14.1% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,332,885 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $651,363,000 after purchasing an additional 534,073 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

About Diamondback Energy

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.