Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 3.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 226,457 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,250 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $34,043,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 274 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 19,719 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,822,000 after acquiring an additional 68 shares during the period. Equitable Trust Co. increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.7% during the third quarter. Equitable Trust Co. now owns 10,030 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the period. Townsend & Associates Inc increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Townsend & Associates Inc now owns 14,330 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,161,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the period. Finally, 180 Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. 180 Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,725 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $410,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FANG. KeyCorp upped their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $196.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Benchmark lowered Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Freedom Capital raised Diamondback Energy to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Diamondback Energy from $231.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Diamondback Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $223.63.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 7,857 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.20, for a total transaction of $1,486,544.40. Following the transaction, the director owned 942,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $178,362,813.20. This trade represents a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Steven E. West sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $188.35, for a total value of $1,130,100.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 4,484 shares in the company, valued at approximately $844,561.40. The trade was a 57.23% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 54,065 shares of company stock valued at $10,551,236. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FANG opened at $192.13 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.05 billion, a PE ratio of 223.41 and a beta of 0.42. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $195.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $175.36. 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 12 month low of $134.30 and a 12 month high of $214.51.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.74 by $0.49. The firm had revenue of $4.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.83 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 1.87%.Diamondback Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $4.54 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 19.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 511.63%.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

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.