First Trust Advisors LP Grows Stock Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 61.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 692,625 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after buying an additional 263,151 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP owned approximately 0.25% of Diamondback Energy worth $136,994,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FANG. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,733,538 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $821,649,000 after acquiring an additional 163,548 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,621,120 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $844,073,000 after acquiring an additional 14,625 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,159,365 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $775,607,000 after purchasing an additional 532,756 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 14.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,332,885 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $651,363,000 after purchasing an additional 534,073 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,828,941 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $575,605,000 after purchasing an additional 117,798 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $221.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company set a $212.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $229.00 to $216.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $218.68.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ FANG opened at $205.49 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 0.56 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $134.30 and a 52-week high of $214.51. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $191.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $182.41. The firm has a market cap of $57.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 238.94 and a beta of 0.42.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.74 by $0.49. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 1.87%.The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.83 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.54 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were issued a $1.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 511.63%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 83,334 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $187.12, for a total transaction of $15,593,458.08. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 851,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,338,293.60. This trade represents a 8.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Mark Lawrence Plaumann sold 500 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.50, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 13,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,640,370.50. This trade represents a 3.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 113,691 shares of company stock worth $21,622,752 over the last three months. 0.64% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Diamondback Energy

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.