Barclays Upgrades Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) to “Overweight”

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) was upgraded by Barclays from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage presently has a $210.00 price objective on the oil and natural gas company’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $216.00. Barclays‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 11.52% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on FANG. 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 report on Wednesday, September 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered 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. Johnson Rice downgraded Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Diamondback Energy from $249.00 to $240.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $207.68.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Shares of FANG stock opened at $188.30 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $33.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.61, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.89. The business has a 50 day moving average of $187.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $195.20. Diamondback Energy has a 52 week low of $143.08 and a 52 week high of $214.50. The company has a quick ratio of 3.64, a current ratio of 3.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 5th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $2.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.68 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy will post 18.97 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Diamondback Energy

In other news, major shareholder Lyndal Greth sold 13,212,830 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 1,037,819 shares in the company, valued at approximately $181,732,485.09. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of FANG. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 5,740 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $990,000 after purchasing an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank grew its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 38,166 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $6,580,000 after buying an additional 4,180 shares in the last quarter. Park National Corp OH increased its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 107.2% in the third quarter. Park National Corp OH now owns 40,701 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $7,017,000 after buying an additional 21,055 shares during the last quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $74,000. Finally, Centaurus Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 52.2% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 1,513 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $303,000 after acquiring an additional 519 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.