First Trust Advisors LP Increases Stock Position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 61.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 692,625 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 263,151 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $136,994,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of FANG. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,733,538 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $821,649,000 after buying an additional 163,548 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the fourth 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 during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 532,756 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 14.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 534,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 3.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 117,798 shares in the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Diamondback Energy news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 7,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.90, for a total value of $1,406,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 85,755 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,228,179.50. The trade was a 7.55% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 value of $15,593,458.08. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 851,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $159,338,293.60. This represents a 8.91% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 113,691 shares of company stock worth $21,622,752 in the last three months. 0.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on FANG shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their target price on Diamondback Energy from $237.00 to $241.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered 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. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $175.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Diamondback Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $221.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Four research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Diamondback Energy has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.68.

Diamondback Energy Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of FANG stock opened at $205.49 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $57.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 238.94 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $191.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $182.41. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $134.30 and a twelve month high of $214.51.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.74 by $0.49. The company had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.83 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 1.87% and a return on equity of 7.76%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.54 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 14th were given a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 14th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 511.63%.

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.