Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Trims Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS trimmed its position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,735 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 1,050 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $6,510,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,858,555 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $2,044,415,000 after purchasing an additional 149,871 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,169,742 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $849,202,000 after purchasing an additional 571,820 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,618,560 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $793,611,000 after acquiring an additional 266,299 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,163,070 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $682,036,000 after acquiring an additional 502,916 shares during the period. Finally, Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 30.5% during the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,817,554 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $461,600,000 after acquiring an additional 658,644 shares during the period. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Frank D. Tsuru acquired 2,000 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 28th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $156.51 per share, for a total transaction of $313,020.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 5,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $896,802.30. This trade represents a 53.62 % increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $236.00 to $238.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $219.00 to $215.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Williams Trading set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $209.92.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Diamondback Energy stock opened at $158.50 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $45.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.85. The company has a current ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 0.42 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $160.47 and a 200-day moving average of $170.39. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 52 week low of $137.09 and a 52 week high of $214.50.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.64 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.57 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $3.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.55 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 13.68% and a net margin of 33.64%. On average, analysts expect that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This is a boost from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 25.32%.

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.