South Dakota Investment Council Raises Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

South Dakota Investment Council lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 4.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 98,895 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after buying an additional 4,546 shares during the period. South Dakota Investment Council owned about 0.06% of Diamondback Energy worth $15,337,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 3.7% in the third quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,797 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 1.8% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,655 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. MCF Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 846 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $131,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Veracity Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 3.5% during the third quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 2,061 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $319,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,115 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $483,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James dropped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $190.00 to $185.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $195.00 target price on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Monday, March 4th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $183.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $202.53.

Insider Buying and Selling at Diamondback Energy

In other news, COO Daniel N. Wesson sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.17, for a total transaction of $1,153,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 78,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,031,153.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Daniel N. Wesson sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.17, for a total transaction of $1,153,020.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 78,218 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,031,153.06. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.00, for a total value of $6,000,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 446,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $89,322,000. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 57,675 shares of company stock valued at $11,311,096. 0.43% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FANG traded up $1.79 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $204.37. 960,299 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,745,681. The firm has a market cap of $36.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.77 and a quick ratio of 0.74. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.41 and a twelve month high of $211.96. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $191.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $168.61.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.61 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.56% and a net margin of 37.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $5.29 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.53 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $3.08 per share. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $12.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 4th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.76%.

About Diamondback Energy

Diamondback Energy, Inc, an independent oil and natural gas company, acquires, develops, explores, and exploits unconventional, onshore oil and natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin in West Texas. It focuses on the development of the Spraberry and Wolfcamp formations of the Midland basin; and the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring formations of the Delaware basin, which are part of the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico.