Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Cut to “Sell” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on FANG. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $160.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy to $188.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Monday, December 22nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $162.00 price objective on Diamondback Energy and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $188.76.

Diamondback Energy Stock Up 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:FANG opened at $148.57 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The business has a fifty day moving average of $148.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $144.91. The stock has a market cap of $42.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.32 and a beta of 0.63. Diamondback Energy has a 52-week low of $114.00 and a 52-week high of $180.91.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $3.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.48 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 9.57% and a net margin of 27.32%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 48.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.19 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Diamondback Energy will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were given a $1.00 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.7%. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 27.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 377,911 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.61, for a total transaction of $52,382,243.71. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 1,044,864 shares in the company, valued at $144,828,599.04. This trade represents a 26.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Diamondback Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ieq Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 279.3% during the first quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 5,997 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $959,000 after purchasing an additional 4,416 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 21.0% during the 1st quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 4,106 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $656,000 after buying an additional 713 shares during the period. State of Wyoming increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 21.5% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 848 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $136,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 44.9% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 792,590 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $126,719,000 after buying an additional 245,529 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vident Advisory LLC boosted its position in Diamondback Energy by 84.2% in the 1st quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 6,798 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $1,087,000 after buying an additional 3,108 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.