Latest news with #FANG
CNBC
3 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Top Wall Street analysts prefer these dividend stocks for consistent returns
Earnings of major U.S. companies and the uncertainty around tariffs continued to impact investor sentiment this week. While the stock market remains volatile, investors seeking consistent returns could add some attractive dividend stocks to their portfolios. In this regard, stock picks of top Wall Street analysts can be helpful, as the recommendations of these experts are based on in-depth analysis of a company's financials and ability to pay dividends. Here are three dividend-paying stocks, highlighted by Wall Street's top pros, as tracked by TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance. This week's first dividend pick is Home Depot (HD). The home improvement retailer reported mixed results for the first quarter of fiscal 2025 but reaffirmed its full-year guidance. The company expressed its intention to maintain its prices and not increase them in response to tariffs. Home Depot declared a dividend of $2.30 per share for the first quarter of 2025, payable on June 18, 2025. At an annualized dividend of $9.20 per share, HD stock offers a dividend yield of 2.5%. Following the Q1 FY25 results, Evercore analyst Greg Melich reiterated a buy rating on HD stock with a price target of $400. The analyst thinks that the risk/reward profile of Home Depot stock is one of the best in Evercore's coverage. Melich contends that while Home Depot's headline results appear ordinary, he believes that a notable inflection has begun. The analyst highlighted certain positives in Home Depot's Q1 performance, including stabilizing traffic, improving shrink (inventory lost due to theft or other reasons) rates, and acceleration in online sales growth to 8% after staying lower than 5% since Q3 FY22. "HD remains a benchmark retailer, investing in technology, multichannel and stores, even while current demand remains low," concluded Melich. He continues to believe that once the macro environment improves, Home Depot could be the "next great Consumer/Retail breakout multiple stock" like Costco in 2023 and Walmart in 2024. Melich ranks No. 607 among more than 9,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 68% of the time, delivering an average return of 12%. See Home Depot Ownership Structure on TipRanks. Next on this week's list is Diamondback Energy (FANG), an independent oil and gas company that is focused on onshore reserves, mainly in the Permian Basin in West Texas. FANG delivered better-than-expected first-quarter results. However, given the ongoing commodity price volatility, Diamondback reduced its full-year activity to maximize free cash flow generation. Meanwhile, the company returned $864 million to shareholders in Q1 2025 through stock repurchases and a base dividend of $1.00 per share. FANG's Q1 2025 capital return represented roughly 55% of adjusted free cash flow. Based on the base and variable dividends paid over the past 12 months, FANG stock offers a dividend yield of nearly 3.9%. In a recent research note, RBC Capital analyst Scott Hanold reaffirmed a buy rating on FANG stock with a price target of $180. Hanold noted that while the company lowered its 2025 capital budget by $400 million or 10% to $3.4 - $3.8 billion, the production outlook was cut by only 1%. The analyst stated that Diamondback's move to reduce its capital spending plan increased his free cash flow estimate by 7% over the next 18 months. Hanold thinks that the company's decision will not weigh on its operational momentum or the ability to efficiently return to its 500 Mb/d productive capacity. Commenting on FANG's free cash flow priorities, Hanold noted that the company is tracking ahead of its 50% minimum shareholder return target, thanks to stock buybacks amid the pullback in shares, mainly during early April. He expects the company to use the remaining free cash flow to pay down the $1.5 billion term loan related to its Double Eagle-IV acquisition in the Midland Basin, which was announced in February. Overall, Hanold's bullish thesis on FANG stock remains intact, and he believes that "FANG has one of the lowest cost structures in the basin and a corporate cash flow break-even (including dividend) that is among the best in the industry." Hanold ranks No. 17 among more than 9,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 67% of the time, delivering an average return of 29.1%. See Diamondback Energy Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks. Another dividend-paying energy stock in this week's list is ConocoPhillips (COP). The oil and gas exploration and production company reported market-beating earnings for the first quarter of 2025. Given a volatile macro environment, the company reduced its full-year capital and adjusted operating cost guidance but maintained its production outlook. In Q1 2025, ConocoPhillips distributed $2.5 billion to shareholders, including $1.5 billion in share repurchases and $1.0 billion via ordinary dividends. At a quarterly dividend of $0.78 per share (annualized dividend of $3.12), COP stock offers a yield of about 3.7%. Following investor meetings with management in Boston, Goldman Sachs analyst Neil Mehta reiterated a buy rating on COP stock with a price target of $119. Mehta highlighted that management sees significant uncertainty in oil prices in the near term due to concerns about economic growth and voluntary production cuts by OPEC+. That said, the company is bullish about long-term gas prices. Meanwhile, the analyst expects COP's breakeven to shift lower in the times ahead, with major growth projects on track. Mehta stated that while the benchmark price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil – also known as WTI – breakeven (before dividend) is in the mid $40s in 2025, he sees the breakeven heading towards the low $30s once COP's LNG spending comes down and production at its Willow project in Alaska comes online in 2029. Commenting on COP's shareholder returns, Mehta stated that management acknowledged that their decision not to stick with the $10 billion capital return target led to short-term volatility in COP stock. That said, COP still offers a "compelling" return, which Mehta estimates will be 8%. Mehta ranks No. 568 among more than 9,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 59% of the time, delivering an average return of 8.6%. See ConocoPhillips Hedge Fund Trading Activity on TipRanks.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
2 No-Brainer Media-Streaming Stocks to Buy Right Now
Netflix and Spotify shares have gained more than 30% in 2025 -- and each stock rose at least 500% in three years. Both companies show long-term potential, even after their massive gains in recent times. 10 stocks we like better than Netflix › Some stock picks make sense because the shares are unreasonably cheap. In other cases, you may want to grab a few shares of a skyrocketing stock while it's hot. Either way, I insist on investing in fantastic companies with promising long-term business prospects. On that note, two stocks currently strike me as particularly great investment ideas in the media-streaming industry. They are both of the skyrocketing variety, and they deserve a closer look these days. Digital media veteran Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) has been good to its investors lately. As of May 27, the stock has gained 35% year-to-date. It's also up 530% over the past three years, dating back to the bottom of the 2021-2022 inflation panic. The stock's total market value is up to $514 billion today. Yes, that's more than half a trillion dollars. Remember when Netflix was a standard component of the FANG or FAANG groups of market-moving stock tickers? The stock fell out of favor for a while but now it's back in style. Whatever comes after the "Magnificent Seven" club, Netflix could very well be an original member. This is a fine example of the "skyrocketing winners" category. Skeptics have called Netflix "overvalued" and its target market "saturated" so many times, it's hard to keep track. And the company keeps proving the doubters wrong, dominating the video entertainment industry in many ways. The red DVD mailers destroyed the video rental sector. Online video streaming turned out to be a scalable and profitable business when done right, and Netflix is always a contender in the movie/TV awards season. Netflix is the largest holding in my nest-egg portfolio. That's a natural result of a 10,019% return since the stock traded at a deep discount in the Qwikster meltdown of 2011. I'm still a Netflix buyer in 2025. This little media giant still has a lot of business growth left to do. Here's another proven winner. Digital audio giant Spotify (NYSE: SPOT) has posted 500% returns in three years and a 46% gain in 2025. Again, I'm pretty sure this is just the beginning of a long growth story. I mean, Spotify has a long history of barely breakeven cash profits. The stock was valued almost entirely by Spotify's top-line revenue growth for many years. But that has changed recently. The sales growth is still torrential, but now it's paired with generous cash flows. The company has grown its trailing revenues by 38% over the last two years. In the same time span, free cash flow soared from $53 million to $2.8 billion. Spotify's recent success was no random accident, either. The company enjoys strong user engagement with its new video podcast content, supported by an effective monetization system. Premium audiobooks are another highlight, not to mention Spotify's international expansion efforts. The company's strongest sales growth in 2025 comes from premium subscribers and international markets. CEO Daniel Ek believes that Spotify should see even better results in the coming years. "The way I see it, the long term is built one day at a time," Ek said in the Q1 2025 earnings call. "The internal tooling and AI systems we've been building over the past few years, combined with new ways of working across teams, are now enabling us to execute faster and smarter. And the compounding effect of that shift is something I believe will become even more visible in the quarters ahead." This isn't a cheap stock, trading at 108 times trailing earnings and 47 times those growing free cash flows. I'm tempted to start a Spotify position in 2025 anyway, and kicking myself for not making that move a few years earlier. Before you buy stock in Netflix, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Netflix wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $830,492!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Anders Bylund has positions in Netflix. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Netflix and Spotify Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 2 No-Brainer Media-Streaming Stocks to Buy Right Now was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Wall Street Journal
18-05-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
The Ditch-America Trade Now Has Its Own Acronym: ABUSA
An investment theme is only complete when it gets its own acronym, and the brokers that gave us BRIC, FANG, PIGS and TMT have captured the latest trend perfectly: ABUSA, or Anywhere But U.S.A. Last week, global stocks made a new all-time high—so long as the U.S. is excluded. True, U.S. stocks rose above where they started the year for the first time since February, on the back of a strong recovery from the post-Liberation Day lows. But being flat for the year isn't much to boast about when stocks elsewhere are up 11% in dollar terms.
Washington Post
24-02-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Diamondback: Q4 Earnings Snapshot
MIDLAND, Texas — MIDLAND, Texas — Diamondback Energy Inc. (FANG) on Monday reported fourth-quarter net income of $1.07 billion. The Midland, Texas-based company said it had net income of $3.67 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $3.64 per share. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.26 per share.
