Earnest Partners LLC Sells 6,879 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Earnest Partners LLC reduced its holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 454,595 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 6,879 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC owned 0.16% of Diamondback Energy worth $65,053,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 106.3% in the 3rd quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new stake in Diamondback Energy during the third quarter worth about $31,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Estabrook Capital Management acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, City Holding Co. bought a new position in Diamondback Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 90.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ:FANG opened at $182.37 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $51.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.51 and a beta of 0.59. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $164.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $152.52. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $114.00 and a one year high of $186.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40.

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

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. This is a boost 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 2.3%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.87%.

Key Headlines Impacting Diamondback Energy

Here are the key news stories impacting Diamondback Energy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler raised its price target substantially (to $248) and kept an overweight view, giving investors a near‑term fundamental endorsement and supporting upside expectations. Piper Sandler price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: Freedom Capital / Zacks published a “strong‑buy” upgrade, adding buy-side momentum and contributing to buying interest. Zacks / Freedom Capital upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Diamondback recently lifted its quarterly dividend (to $1.05), which can support valuation and attract yield‑seeking investors. Dividend increase (MarketBeat)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest prints look inconsistent (days‑to‑cover ~0.0) and appear to be data artifacts; there’s no clear evidence of aggressive short covering driving today’s move.
• Negative Sentiment: SGF FANG Holdings launched and priced a large underwritten secondary offering (~11.0M shares, ≈$1.9B gross), which increases available supply and is a clear downward pressure risk since Diamondback receives no proceeds. Secondary offering priced (TipRanks)
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple senior insiders and directors disclosed multi‑million dollar sales (including CEO Kaes Van’t Hof and Director Charles Meloy), and press coverage is highlighting executives selling into the rally — a negative signal for sentiment and confidence. Executive selling coverage (Yahoo) Director sale (InsiderTrades)
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks / AmericanBankingNews flagged downward near‑term EPS estimate revisions for FANG, which increases earnings risk ahead of future reports. Zacks negative earnings estimate

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 60,605 shares of the business’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 directly owned 982,006 shares in the company, valued at $158,220,806.72. The trade was a 5.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Fang Holdings Lp Sgf sold 1,000,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.88, for a total value of $162,880,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 98,686,727 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,074,094,093.76. This represents a 1.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 1,168,462 shares of company stock valued at $192,197,747. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on FANG. Barclays boosted their price target on Diamondback Energy from $178.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $199.00 to $190.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $194.00 to $205.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $180.00 target price on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $191.67.

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.