Merit Financial Group LLC Has $379,000 Stock Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 18.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,315 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after buying an additional 353 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $379,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,858,555 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,044,415,000 after purchasing an additional 149,871 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 6.1% during the third 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 buying an additional 266,299 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 9.3% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 2,704,520 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $466,259,000 after buying an additional 230,689 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 25.6% during the third quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,158,910 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $372,196,000 after buying an additional 439,579 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates increased its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 4.2% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,135,230 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $195,714,000 after acquiring an additional 46,109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $219.00 to $207.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on Diamondback Energy from $230.00 to $236.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Diamondback Energy from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $205.00 to $215.00 in a research note on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Diamondback Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $190.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Four investment 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.00.

Insider Activity at Diamondback Energy

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Mark Lawrence Plaumann sold 1,150 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.00, for a total transaction of $208,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,712 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $852,872. The trade was a 19.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Diamondback Energy Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of FANG stock opened at $173.26 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $50.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.92, a PEG ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 1.88. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $170.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $182.47. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $147.93 and a 1 year high of $214.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 0.45 and a quick ratio of 0.42.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.38 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.62 by ($1.24). The firm had revenue of $2.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.43 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 33.64% and a return on equity of 13.68%. Diamondback Energy’s revenue was up 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.49 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th were given a $0.90 dividend. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 14th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.61%.

Diamondback Energy 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.