Mizuho Lowers Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Price Target to $194.00

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Mizuho from $195.00 to $194.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock. Mizuho’s price target points to a potential upside of 25.96% from the stock’s previous close.

FANG has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup cut their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $180.00 to $178.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $173.00 target price on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $185.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $160.00 to $169.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $185.67.

Diamondback Energy Stock Up 1.4%

FANG opened at $154.02 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.70 and a beta of 0.59. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $150.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $145.68. Diamondback Energy has a twelve month low of $114.00 and a twelve month high of $177.69. The company has a quick ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 377,911 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $138.61, for a total transaction of $52,382,243.71. Following the transaction, the director owned 1,044,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $144,828,599.04. The trade was a 26.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Diamondback Energy

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 31.4% during the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,217 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $333,000 after buying an additional 530 shares in the last quarter. Sunpointe LLC raised its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 16.9% during the fourth quarter. Sunpointe LLC now owns 6,852 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 991 shares during the period. Patton Fund Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $216,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 16.1% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 297,945 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $44,790,000 after acquiring an additional 41,307 shares during the period. Finally, Stanley Laman Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Stanley Laman Group Ltd. now owns 19,681 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,959,000 after acquiring an additional 658 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.