HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Grows Stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 6.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,051 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 262 shares during the quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $656,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy in the fourth quarter valued at about $298,327,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 1,153.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,132,918 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $185,606,000 after purchasing an additional 1,042,505 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 30.5% in the 4th quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,817,554 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $461,600,000 after purchasing an additional 658,644 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its position in shares of 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 worth $849,202,000 after purchasing an additional 571,820 shares during the period. Finally, Zimmer Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $87,924,000. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In other news, Director Frank D. Tsuru acquired 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 28th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $156.51 per share, with a total value of $313,020.00. Following 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 ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.48% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on FANG. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $212.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James reduced their price target on Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $214.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $227.00 to $206.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $212.00 to $167.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $209.33.

Diamondback Energy Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FANG opened at $160.87 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $157.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $169.57. The stock has a market cap of $46.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.21, a PEG 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. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.09 and a 12 month high of $214.50.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.55 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 33.64% and a return on equity of 13.68%. As a group, analysts predict that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 6th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.49%. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.32%.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

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.