Vantage Investment Partners LLC Purchases 8,165 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Vantage Investment Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 9.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 91,349 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,165 shares during the period. Vantage Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $13,072,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 70.6% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 889 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $122,000 after purchasing an additional 368 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 18.1% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,281 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $176,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 43.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 5,416 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $744,000 after purchasing an additional 1,628 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 9.6% in the 2nd quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 9,646 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $1,325,000 after purchasing an additional 848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norden Group LLC acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $227,000. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In related news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 377,911 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.61, for a total transaction of $52,382,243.71. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,044,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $144,828,599.04. The trade was a 26.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on FANG shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Monday, December 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $199.00 to $190.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 5th. Scotiabank set a $175.00 price target on Diamondback Energy in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $173.00 price target on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $186.24.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FANG opened at $151.85 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.49 billion, a PE ratio of 10.55 and a beta of 0.59. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $114.00 and a 52 week high of $180.29. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $150.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $145.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.62.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.94 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.48 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 27.32% and a return on equity of 9.57%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 48.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.19 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is currently 27.80%.

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.