Wintrust Investments LLC Takes Position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Wintrust Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 172 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $28,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of FANG. R Squared Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 247.3% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 191 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 136 shares during the last quarter. Key Financial Inc boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 940.0% in the fourth quarter. Key Financial Inc now owns 208 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 62.4% in the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 276 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Smithfield Trust Co boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 37.8% in the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 310 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Diamondback Energy Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FANG opened at $150.20 on Friday. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $137.09 and a 12 month high of $214.50. The company has a quick ratio of 0.42, a current ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $162.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $171.85. The firm has a market cap of $43.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.60, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.84.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 25th. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.57 by $0.07. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 33.64% and a return on equity of 13.68%. The firm had revenue of $3.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.55 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 6th were paid a $1.00 dividend. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 6th. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 25.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Diamondback Energy

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Frank D. Tsuru purchased 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 purchase, the director now owns 5,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $896,802.30. This represents a 53.62 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Williams Trading set a $190.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Wolfe Research raised 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 research note on Friday, January 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $227.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $201.00 to $204.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $212.00 to $167.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, eighteen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.92.

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.