Victory Capital Management Inc. Acquires 276,394 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 27.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,265,959 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 276,394 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $181,159,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smead Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $144,775,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 1.7% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,325,287 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $3,204,894,000 after acquiring an additional 388,512 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 9.0% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,642,218 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $637,841,000 after acquiring an additional 384,971 shares in the last quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy in the third quarter worth $45,076,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 44.8% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 985,844 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $135,456,000 after acquiring an additional 305,207 shares in the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In other news, major shareholder Fang Holdings Lp Sgf sold 1,000,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.88, for a total transaction of $162,880,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 98,686,727 shares in the company, valued at $16,074,094,093.76. This trade represents a 1.00% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 60,605 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $161.12, for a total value of $9,764,677.60. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 982,006 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $158,220,806.72. This trade represents a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 1,438,516 shares of company stock valued at $225,026,921 over the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

FANG stock opened at $177.53 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $50.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.65 and a beta of 0.59. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.00 and a 1 year high of $183.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $159.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $150.41.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.26). The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.41 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 8.08%. The firm’s revenue was down 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.67 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a $1.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. This represents a $4.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.4%. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is 71.30%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on FANG. UBS Group set a $195.00 price target on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Monday, December 29th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $194.00 to $205.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Susquehanna upped their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $182.00 to $199.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Scotiabank set a $175.00 target price on Diamondback Energy in a report on Friday, January 16th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $187.86.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

Diamondback Energy, Inc (NASDAQ: FANG) is an independent oil and natural gas company focused on the development, exploration and production of unconventional resources in the Permian Basin. Headquartered in Midland, Texas, the company concentrates its operations in the core Midland and Delaware sub‑basins of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, where it pursues contiguous acreage positions to support repeatable drilling programs.

Diamondback’s activities span the upstream value chain, including leasehold acquisition, well planning, drilling, completion and production optimization.