FANG · Energy(crude petroleum & natural gas) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
Diamondback Energy, Inc. reported revenue of $15.0 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 45.1% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from -13.0% in 2016 to 8.4%, and it earned 2.0% on its invested capital in the latest year. Of the $39.0 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 16.5% went to dividends and 10.3% to buybacks; the share count rose 285.0%. On the accounting screens, it passes 4 of 8 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 1.47 is in the grey zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 202515.0B+45.1% a year over 9 years
Operating margin8.4%gross margin —
Return on invested capital2.0%13.1% on average over 5 years
Free cash flow—
Net debt ÷ EBITDA2.3×net debt 14.4B
Piotroski F-score4/8tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-10.0B010.0B20.0B
2016Revenue 527.1MOperating income -68.6M
2017Revenue 1.2BOperating income 605.0M
2018Revenue 2.1BOperating income 1.0B
2019Revenue 3.9BOperating income 695.0M
2020Revenue 2.8BOperating income -5.5B
2021Revenue 6.7BOperating income 4.0B
2022Revenue 9.6BOperating income 6.5B
2023Revenue 8.4BOperating income 4.6B
2024Revenue 11.1BOperating income 4.4B
2025Revenue 15.0BOperating income 1.3B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+16.2%
+40.4%
+45.1%
Operating income
-42.1%
—
—
Net income
-27.6%
—
—
Earnings per share
-38.6%
—
—
Dividend per share
-23.4%
+21.8%
—
Shares
+17.9%
+12.8%
+16.2%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
GrossOperatingNetFree cash flow
-200.0%-100.0%0.0%100.0%
2016Operating -13.0%Net -31.3%
2017Operating 50.2%Net 40.0%
2018Operating 47.5%Net 39.7%
2019Operating 17.9%Net 6.2%
2020Operating -198.7%Net -163.9%
2021Operating 59.3%Net 32.3%
2022Operating 68.0%Net 45.8%
2023Operating 54.3%Net 37.4%
2024Operating 39.7%Net 30.2%
2025Operating 8.4%Net 11.1%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Return on invested capital
Return on invested capital
-60.0%-40.0%-20.0%-0.0%20.0%40.0%
2016Return on invested capital -1.4%
2017Return on invested capital 8.6%
2018Return on invested capital 4.7%
2019Return on invested capital 3.2%
2020Return on invested capital -44.6%
2021Return on invested capital 16.7%
2022Return on invested capital 24.3%
2023Return on invested capital 15.4%
2024Return on invested capital 7.1%
2025Return on invested capital 2.0%
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Economic profit
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
4.5%
Return on assets
2.3%
Asset turnover
0.21×
Overheads (SG&A)
1.9% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-5.0B-2.5B02.5B5.0B
2016Net income -165.0M
2017Net income 482.0M
2018Net income 846.0M
2019Net income 240.0M
2020Net income -4.5B
2021Net income 2.2B
2022Net income 4.4B
2023Net income 3.1B
2024Net income 3.3B
2025Net income 1.7B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
39.0B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 0%0
Acquisitions 0%0
Dividends 17%6.4B
Share buybacks 10%4.0B
Kept, or used to pay down debt 73%28.5B
Over the same years it paid 389.5M in stock. The share count rose 285.0%. 3.6B of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
$-40.00$-20.00$0.00$20.00$40.00
2016Earnings per share $-2.20Dividend per share $0.00
2017Earnings per share $4.93Dividend per share $0.00
2018Earnings per share $8.06Dividend per share $0.35
2019Earnings per share $1.46Dividend per share $0.68
2020Earnings per share $-28.59Dividend per share $1.49
2021Earnings per share $12.35Dividend per share $1.77
2022Earnings per share $24.84Dividend per share $8.90
2023Earnings per share $17.46Dividend per share $8.02
2024Earnings per share $15.63Dividend per share $7.39
2025Earnings per share $5.76Dividend per share $4.00
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
0100.0M200.0M300.0M
2016Diluted shares 75.1M
2017Diluted shares 97.7M
2018Diluted shares 104.9M
2019Diluted shares 163.8M
2020Diluted shares 158.0M
2021Diluted shares 176.6M
2022Diluted shares 176.5M
2023Diluted shares 180.0M
2024Diluted shares 213.5M
2025Diluted shares 289.1M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
How strong is the balance sheet?
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-5.0B05.0B10.0B15.0B
2016Net debt -560.7M
2017Net debt 1.4B
2018Net debt 4.2B
2019Net debt 5.2B
2020Net debt 5.7B
2021Net debt 6.0B
2022Net debt 6.1B
2023Net debt 6.1B
2024Net debt 12.8B
2025Net debt 14.4B
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
2.3×
Interest coverage
5× operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
0.42 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 27d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
4of 8 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✕Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforefailed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
✕Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fellfailed
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✕No new sharesShare count did not growfailed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
1.47grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets -0.04 × 6.56-0.25
Retained earnings ÷ assets 0.07 × 3.26+0.22
Operating income ÷ assets 0.02 × 6.72+0.12
Equity ÷ liabilities 1.32 × 1.05+1.38
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-3.17below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.60+0.55
Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
Soft assets 0.70+0.28
Sales growth 1.36+1.21
Slower depreciation 0.62+0.07
Overheads vs sales 1.00-0.17
Profit not in cash -0.10-0.47
Leverage rising 1.03-0.34
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
The SEC accounts lack the lines needed for revenue, free cash flow or the share count, so there is no DCF for this company.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.