Arizona State Retirement System Boosts Stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Arizona State Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG - Free Report) by 3.2% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 55,673 shares of the oil and natural gas company's stock after buying an additional 1,748 shares during the quarter. Arizona State Retirement System's holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $8,901,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Demars Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in Diamondback Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $638,050,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in Diamondback Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $185,193,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 11.3% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 9,136,645 shares of the oil and natural gas company's stock worth $1,496,859,000 after acquiring an additional 928,429 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 16,197.8% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 605,625 shares of the oil and natural gas company's stock worth $96,827,000 after acquiring an additional 601,909 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 12.4% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,169,742 shares of the oil and natural gas company's stock worth $849,202,000 after acquiring an additional 571,820 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Diamondback Energy

In other news, President Hof Matthew Kaes Van't sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.69, for a total value of $1,426,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 120,645 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $17,214,835.05. The trade was a 7.65% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.70% of the company's stock.

Diamondback Energy Stock Up 3.3%

NASDAQ FANG traded up $4.46 during trading on Thursday, reaching $140.93. 1,727,739 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,305,299. The stock has a market cap of $41.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.62 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.83 and a current ratio of 0.86. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $141.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $149.04. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.00 and a 1 year high of $212.28.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 5th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.87. The company had revenue of $4.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.58 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 11.22% and a net margin of 30.84%. Diamondback Energy's revenue for the quarter was up 81.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.50 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 15th. Diamondback Energy's payout ratio is currently 24.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on FANG shares. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $165.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Citigroup upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a "reduce" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $157.00 to $180.00 in a report on Monday, April 7th. Raymond James Financial reiterated a "strong-buy" rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $200.00 to $185.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Finally, Piper Sandler reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $228.00 target price (up from $225.00) on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nineteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $193.48.

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.