Sam Boughedda

Piper Sandler analyst Mark Lear increased the price target for Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ 🙂 from $188 to $196, while maintaining an Overweight rating on Friday.

In a note to investors, Lear revisited Diamondback’s operations in the northern Midland Basin, which is expected to get the lion’s share (80% of the D&C budget) of allocation in 2022.

Lear stated that the QEP acquisitions of Guidon and QEP in 1H21 closed, while the VNOM acquisition the Swallowtail minerals packages in 2H21 was completed in 2H21. The company also notified that as much as a quarter of its company-wide activities would be located in Robertson/Sale ranch in SE Martin County. FANG receives a 5% royalty uplift. We revisit the Spraberry and northern Midland Wolfcamp curves and examine recent vintage activity at Robertson/Sale Ranch, which suggests that capital efficiency can be improved in 2H22+.

Piper Sandler, an analyst on the stock raised its price target because Piper Sandler thinks that “operational as well shareholder return catalysts [anticipate base dividend pushing up to $3/sh] should continue to close performance gaps between FANG (and peers”)

Diamondback shares were down 1.5% by Friday night.