CI Investments Inc. Sells 5,848 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

CI Investments Inc. lowered its stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 9.7% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 54,287 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 5,848 shares during the quarter. CI Investments Inc.’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $10,737,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of FANG. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in Diamondback Energy by 61.3% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 692,625 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $136,994,000 after acquiring an additional 263,151 shares in the last quarter. Himension Capital Singapore PTE. LTD. purchased a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy in the 1st quarter valued at about $99,000. Cadence Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 19.1% in the first quarter. Cadence Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,356 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $862,000 after purchasing an additional 700 shares during the last quarter. Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS purchased a new position in Diamondback Energy in the 1st quarter worth approximately $428,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 355.3% in the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 29,296 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $5,794,000 after buying an additional 22,862 shares during 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 FANG shares. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $242.00 to $220.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $212.00 price target on Diamondback Energy in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Mizuho increased their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $221.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $225.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $218.68.

Diamondback Energy Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of FANG stock opened at $203.02 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $191.29 and a 200 day moving average of $182.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.56 and a quick ratio of 0.55. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 1-year low of $134.30 and a 1-year high of $214.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $57.11 billion, a PE ratio of 236.07 and a beta of 0.42.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.23 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 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $4.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is currently 511.63%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.90, for a total transaction of $1,406,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 85,755 shares in the company, valued at $17,228,179.50. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Mark Lawrence Plaumann sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $196.50, for a total value of $98,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 13,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,640,370.50. The trade was a 3.59% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 113,691 shares of company stock valued at $21,622,752. Company insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

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.