Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Now Covered by Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) in a research report sent to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating and a $185.00 target price on the oil and natural gas company’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on the company. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $237.00 and set a positive rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on Diamondback Energy in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. They issued an overweight rating and a $225.00 price objective on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their target price on Diamondback Energy from $243.00 to $236.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $220.00 target price on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $201.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $209.71.

Diamondback Energy Stock Up 2.0 %

FANG opened at $181.63 on Monday. Diamondback Energy has a one year low of $143.08 and a one year high of $214.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a current ratio of 3.66. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $192.75 and its 200-day moving average is $195.55. The company has a market capitalization of $32.39 billion, a PE ratio of 10.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.06 and a beta of 1.89.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.51 by $0.01. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.54% and a net margin of 37.51%. The company had revenue of $2.48 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.68 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Diamondback Energy will post 19.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a None dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $2.34 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 15th. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous None dividend of $2.26. This represents a dividend yield of 1.9%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.29%.

Institutional Trading of Diamondback Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,869,787 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $3,391,567,000 after buying an additional 176,208 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 38.2% in the first 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. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 16.0% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,012,329 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $603,038,000 after buying an additional 415,902 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position 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 worth $541,844,000 after purchasing an additional 1,916,900 shares during the period. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Diamondback Energy by 10.1% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,690,181 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $538,547,000 after purchasing an additional 247,065 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.