Matador Resources Company (MTDR) Stock Price & How to Invest

Matador Resources drills, completes and produces oil and natural gas from the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring formations of the Delaware Basin, the western lobe of the Permian, with roughly 483 employees and a founder, Joseph Foran, who has run the company since 2003. Production averaged ~215,631 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the second quarter of 2026, ~58% of it crude oil, and proved reserves reached ~703 million BOE at June 30, 2026 against ~667 million at the end of 2025. Alongside the wells, Matador owns 51% of San Mateo, a gathering and processing joint venture with Five Point Infrastructure that moves natural gas, crude and produced water for Matador and for third-party customers. San Mateo's acquisition of Cardinal Midstream, which closed on July 31, 2026, pushed its designed processing capacity above one billion cubic feet per day.

The investment picture in August 2026 is a company earning well from high oil prices while spending heavily to extend its runway. Trailing twelve-month revenue is ~$3.8 billion and trailing net income ~$724 million, or ~$5.83 per diluted share, which puts the ~$6.9 billion market capitalisation at roughly nine times earnings and about 1.1 times book value. Second-quarter realised oil of ~$98.16 per barrel, up ~53% year over year, drove ~$781 million of adjusted EBITDA and ~$303 million of adjusted free cash flow in a single quarter. Working the other way, realised natural gas came in at negative ~$0.79 per thousand cubic feet because of weak Waha hub pricing, long-term debt climbed from ~$3.4 billion at year-end 2025 to ~$4.2 billion at June 30, and full-year capital spending guidance was raised to ~$1.625 to $1.725 billion to fund the new acreage.

Commodity price is the dominant variable: second-quarter earnings leaned on ~$98 per barrel realised oil, and a return toward the $64 realised in the same quarter of 2025 would compress cash flow sharply against a raised capital budget. Natural gas exposure cuts the other way already, with negative Waha realisations forcing shut-ins, and the Hugh Brinson relief has not yet been demonstrated in reported results. Debt grew by roughly $750 million in a single quarter to fund acreage, so the deleveraging path to 1.0x depends on prices holding. Two of the four 2026 transactions, Paloma and Ridge Runner, are still pending and carry regulatory, closing and integration risk, and the Woodford play remains an emerging formation supported by a small number of wells rather than a long production history. On the disclosure side, the New Mexico Environment Department issued a Notice of Violation to San Mateo on July 22, 2025 over alleged excess air emissions at the Black River processing plant, with settlement discussions pointing to an amount between $300,000 and $1,000,000, which the company does not treat as material.

19 analysts publish price targets on MTDR, averaging $68.42 against a $55.94 price as of August 2026, or +22.3%. The published targets run from $56.00 to $93.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 16 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 4 raises and 8 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full MTDR forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Matador Resources Company. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Four inventory transactions closed or pending in one year. Matador executed a May 2026 federal lease sale purchase of 5,154 net undeveloped acres, agreed in July to buy Paloma Permian (16,235 net acres in southeast New Mexico, ~11,100 BOE per day and ~55 million BOE of reserves), and agreed to acquire 13,600 net Woodford acres from Ridge Runner at roughly $4,000 per acre. The most optimistic published target, $93.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. Commodity price is the dominant variable: second-quarter earnings leaned on ~$98 per barrel realised oil, and a return toward the $64 realised in the same quarter of 2025 would compress cash flow sharply against a raised capital budget. The most pessimistic target, $56.00, is roughly what MTDR is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on MTDR, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Matador Resources Company's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$3.8B
• Net income (TTM): ~$724M
• Diluted EPS (TTM): ~$5.83
• Market cap: ~$6.9B
• Trailing P/E: ~9x
• Long-term debt (June 30, 2026): ~$4.2B

The single-digit trailing multiple and ~1.1x price-to-book are typical of US shale producers, which the market prices on reserve life and commodity assumptions rather than on reported earnings. Netting ~$26 million of cash against ~$4.2 billion of long-term debt gives an enterprise value near $11 billion, roughly four times trailing operating cash flow of ~$2.6 billion. Reported figures also swing with mark-to-market derivative results, which is why the first quarter of 2026 showed a small GAAP net loss while adjusted net income stayed positive at ~$189.5 million.

Other names that sit close to MTDR: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get MTDR exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so MTDR sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where MTDR fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Matador is a well-run, oil-heavy Delaware Basin operator trading around nine times trailing earnings, and the trade-off is a balance sheet that grew to roughly $4.2 billion of debt to buy roughly four more years of drilling inventory.

Whether MTDR is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is MTDR a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the MTDR stock forecast.

For income investors, whether MTDR pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does MTDR pay a dividend? And to weigh MTDR against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: MTDR vs DVN and MTDR vs OVV.