Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Sells 6,398 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lessened its holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 1.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 425,582 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 6,398 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned 0.24% of Diamondback Energy worth $65,999,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 3.7% during the third quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 1,797 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. Veracity Capital LLC raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 70 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its position in 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 acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Solutions LLC raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 3,115 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $483,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on FANG shares. Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $185.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Bank of America raised shares of Diamondback Energy from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $129.00 to $170.00 in a research report on Monday, February 12th. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $186.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $167.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, fourteen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $195.95.

Diamondback Energy Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of Diamondback Energy stock opened at $199.60 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $35.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.51 and a beta of 1.93. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 12-month low of $123.41 and a 12-month high of $211.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $188.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $167.21.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.61 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $2.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.16 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 37.36% and a return on equity of 19.56%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $5.29 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 represents a $12.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.17%. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 4th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.76%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Diamondback Energy news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total transaction of $384,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,523 shares in the company, valued at $18,532,416. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Travis D. Stice sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 446,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $89,322,000. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total transaction of $384,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 96,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,532,416. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,675 shares of company stock worth $11,311,096 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

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.