Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) Plans $0.90 Quarterly Dividend

Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 30th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.90 per share by the oil and natural gas company on Wednesday, May 22nd. This represents a $3.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%.

Diamondback Energy has raised its dividend by an average of 29.8% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 6 consecutive years. Diamondback Energy has a payout ratio of 17.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Diamondback Energy to earn $21.67 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.6%.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Shares of FANG traded down $4.73 on Tuesday, reaching $201.13. 2,037,615 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,728,094. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $193.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $169.96. Diamondback Energy has a 52-week low of $123.41 and a 52-week high of $211.96. The stock has a market cap of $35.87 billion, a PE ratio of 11.87 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.23 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.10 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.56% and a net margin of 37.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.10 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy will post 18.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Hof Matthew Kaes Van’t sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.82, for a total value of $2,289,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 185,882 shares in the company, valued at $35,470,003.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Diamondback Energy news, CFO Hof Matthew Kaes Van’t sold 12,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $190.82, for a total transaction of $2,289,840.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 185,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $35,470,003.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total transaction of $384,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 96,523 shares in the company, valued at $18,532,416. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 57,675 shares of company stock worth $11,311,096. 0.43% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FANG has been the topic of several analyst reports. Barclays started coverage on Diamondback Energy in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $214.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $195.00 price target on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Monday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $212.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $202.53.

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.