Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) Given New $184.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) had its price target dropped by Morgan Stanley from $186.00 to $184.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the oil and natural gas company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 11.19% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on FANG. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Diamondback Energy from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 13th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $250.00 to $248.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 5th. Barclays assumed coverage on Diamondback Energy in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $214.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $190.00 to $185.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $195.95.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Shares of FANG traded up $0.85 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $207.19. 422,578 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,766,300. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $184.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $166.06. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Diamondback Energy has a fifty-two week low of $123.41 and a fifty-two week high of $211.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $36.95 billion, a PE ratio of 11.96 and a beta of 1.93.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.61 by $0.13. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.56% and a net margin of 37.36%. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $5.29 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Diamondback Energy will post 18.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Diamondback Energy news, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $6,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 446,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $89,322,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Diamondback Energy news, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total transaction of $6,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 446,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $89,322,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Daniel N. Wesson sold 6,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.17, for a total value of $1,153,020.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 78,218 shares in the company, valued at $15,031,153.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,675 shares of company stock worth $11,311,096 in the last three months. 0.43% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FANG. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. AlphaCrest Capital Management LLC now owns 3,156 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 178 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. grew its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 8.2% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 4,932 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $676,000 after acquiring an additional 374 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. grew its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 34,403 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $4,716,000 after acquiring an additional 4,129 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $223,000. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $205,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.