Diamondback Lifts Annual Base Dividend 7.3% To $4.72 As Quarterly Profit Hits $1.603 Billion
The Permian producer also raised its 2026 oil output guidance to about 524,000 barrels a day and nudged up its capital budget.
Diamondback Energy, which drills for oil and natural gas mainly in the Permian Basin of West Texas, raised its annual base dividend 7.3% to $4.72 a share and posted third-quarter net income of $1.603 billion, up from $1.018 billion a year earlier, the company said Monday in an 8-K filing.
Profit and cash flow
Earnings came to $5.69 per diluted share on total revenue of $5.431 billion, against $3.51 a share and $3.924 billion in the third quarter of 2025. The company's adjusted net income was $1.649 billion, or $5.86 a share.
Net cash from operating activities was $2.6 billion, and free cash flow was $2.1 billion after $1.0 billion of cash capital spending. Oil averaged 525,000 barrels a day, and the company realized $87.30 a barrel, down from $96.82 in the second quarter but up from $64.60 a year earlier.
The quarterly dividend is $1.18 a share, payable November 19 to holders of record on November 12. The new annual rate is an 18% increase from a year earlier, the company said.
Buybacks, bonds and a higher forecast
Diamondback bought back 1.3 million shares for about $251 million in the quarter, and 389,841 more for about $73 million so far in the fourth quarter. It also repurchased $106 million of 2054 and 2064 senior notes in the quarter, and redeemed $698 million of 2026 notes at par on October 1.
Full-year oil guidance rose to about 524,000 barrels a day from 522,000-plus. The 2026 capital budget moved to $3.95 billion to $4.00 billion from about $3.9 billion. Fourth-quarter oil output is guided to 518,000 to 528,000 barrels a day.
Consolidated total debt stood at $13.375 billion on September 30, including debt at Viper Energy, its mineral and royalty subsidiary, with net debt of $12.817 billion.
Van't Hof's Permian bets
In a letter to stockholders, CEO Kaes Van't Hof argued the Permian's next decade will rely less on consolidation and more on recovering more oil, growing gas output and supplying power for data centers. Diamondback estimates it extracts about 10% of the oil in place today.
The company took a 7.5% stake in Solitude, a Permian-to-Katy gas pipeline that is set to enter service in the second half of 2029. Van't Hof also said its Barnett acreage has grown to 224,000 net acres, up 12% since February.
Diamondback holds its earnings call and webcast Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. CT.
Sources
- 8-K Filing — Diamondback Energy, Inc. (FANG) — SEC EDGAR
- Exhibit diamondbackex991-11x2x26.htm — Diamondback Energy, Inc. 8-K exhibit — SEC EDGAR
- Exhibit diamondbackex992-11x2x26.htm — Diamondback Energy, Inc. 8-K exhibit — SEC EDGAR
- Diamondback Energy, Inc. Announces Third Quarter 2026 — globenewswire.com
