Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) to Issue Dividend Increase – $1.00 Per Share

Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 24th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th will be given a dividend of 1.00 per share by the oil and natural gas company on Thursday, March 13th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. This is a boost from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90.

Diamondback Energy has increased its dividend payment by an average of 42.3% annually over the last three years. Diamondback Energy has a payout ratio of 22.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Diamondback Energy to earn $15.64 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 23.0%.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Shares of Diamondback Energy stock traded down $0.89 on Monday, reaching $155.23. The stock had a trading volume of 3,880,705 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,139,412. Diamondback Energy has a 1 year low of $152.00 and a 1 year high of $214.50. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company has a market cap of $45.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.86. The business’s 50 day moving average is $165.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.57.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 24th. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.57 by $0.07. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 33.64%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on FANG. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. Truist Financial increased their target price on Diamondback Energy from $236.00 to $238.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Raymond James upped their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Diamondback Energy from $220.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded Diamondback Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $216.22.

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.