Forensic Analysis · Energy / Oil & Gas · as of Sep 25, 2026
Diamondback Energy, Inc. (FANG)
A forensic read on Diamondback Energy, Inc. built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
2.0
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
4
Forensic signals
36.7
P / E (ttm)
4.5%
ROE
$52.0B
Market cap
6.63%
Dividend yield
35.8%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Diamondback Energy, Inc. earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 2.0, placing it in the Grey zone. 4 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
1.6%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 1.6% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 13.6%. After-tax operating profit was $3.6B in FY2023 and $1.0B in FY2025, with operating income at 54.3% of revenue in FY2023, 39.7% in FY2024 and 8.4% in FY2025. The capital base behind it grew +155% across FY2023–FY2025, from $26.3B to $67.1B, while the return fell 12.0 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 13.6% the older base was already earning.
+26.7%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share-count dilution.Diluted share count changed +61% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+26.7%/yr). The count is growing: more stock was issued than repurchased over this window, so aggregate results grew faster than their per-share equivalents. That's ~26.7% shaved off per-share growth every year — total profit has to grow that much just to keep earnings-per-share flat, and a stake held since FY2023 has been diluted ~38%.
0.6% of rev
FY2024
Stock-based comp load.Stock-based compensation ran 0.6% of revenue in FY2024 — about $0.30 per diluted share. No cash left the business to pay it, which is why operating cash flow adds it back. Net of repurchases the diluted count still rose about 27.0% a year and that rate is not falling, so total profit has to grow by that much annually before any of it reaches a share. Stock compensation is one source of that issuance; acquisition consideration, equity raises, convertibles and other employee plans also net into the count, and these figures do not separate them.
-46%
FY2024→FY2025
Dividend — cut.The payout was CUT ~46% in FY2025 (from FY2024). It still returns some cash, but it is NOT the dependable, rising dividend an unbroken streak implies.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$15.03B
Revenue Growth YoY+35.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+33.6%
Net Margin11.1%
Return on Equity4.5%
Debt / Equity0.39x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Diamondback Energy, Inc.'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?