Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 77,090 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,010,298 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 77,090 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.08% of Diamondback Energy worth $3,459,138,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in FANG. Cresset Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 37.5% during the second quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 4,726 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,288 shares during the last quarter. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter worth $2,301,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 13.5% during the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 51,104 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $7,022,000 after purchasing an additional 6,069 shares during the last quarter. AXA S.A. lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 8.5% during the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 52,355 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $7,194,000 after purchasing an additional 4,103 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 37.1% during the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 154,582 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $21,239,000 after purchasing an additional 41,866 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ FANG opened at $200.06 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $56.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.66 and a beta of 0.50. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $127.75 and a twelve month high of $204.91. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $186.18 and a 200 day simple moving average of $163.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.26). The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.41 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 8.08%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.67 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 17.71 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a $1.05 dividend. The ex-dividend date was 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 yield of 2.1%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 74.87%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 7,857 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.93, for a total value of $1,523,708.01. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 958,435 shares in the company, valued at $185,869,299.55. This represents a 0.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Matt Zmigrosky sold 4,101 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $190.51, for a total value of $781,281.51. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 56,392 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,743,239.92. The trade was a 6.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 1,217,069 shares of company stock valued at $201,213,109 over the last ninety days. 0.64% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on FANG shares. Scotiabank upped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $202.00 to $262.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $196.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $220.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $205.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $208.05.

Diamondback Energy 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.