Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG Shares Sold by J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 50.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,972 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 5,054 shares during the quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $747,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Boston Partners increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 2.9% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,733,538 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $821,649,000 after purchasing an additional 163,548 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,621,120 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $844,073,000 after purchasing an additional 14,625 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 11.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,159,365 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $775,607,000 after purchasing an additional 532,756 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 38.0% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,798,812 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $543,610,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,398 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 9.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,120,359 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $446,523,000 after purchasing an additional 274,331 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on FANG shares. Zacks Research lowered shares of Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $237.00 to $241.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $225.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Benchmark downgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $223.63.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Mark Lawrence Plaumann sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $196.50, for a total transaction of $98,250.00. Following the sale, the director owned 13,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,640,370.50. The trade was a 3.59% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Steven E. West sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total transaction of $1,130,100.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 4,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $844,561.40. This represents a 57.23% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 78,964 shares of company stock valued at $15,044,656 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of NASDAQ:FANG opened at $196.55 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $55.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 228.55 and a beta of 0.42. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $195.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $174.93. 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 fifty-two week low of $134.30 and a fifty-two week high of $214.51.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.74 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.83 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 1.87% and a return on equity of 7.76%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $4.54 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 19.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 14th were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. 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 yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 511.63%.

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.