Earnest Partners LLC Sells 6,879 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Earnest Partners LLC cut its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 454,595 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 6,879 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $65,053,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its position in Diamondback Energy by 106.3% during the third quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 198 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Diamondback Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. Salomon & Ludwin LLC bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy in the third quarter worth $31,000. Estabrook Capital Management bought a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy in the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, City Holding Co. acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy in the third quarter valued at about $43,000. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

More Diamondback Energy News

Here are the key news stories impacting Diamondback Energy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler raised its price target substantially (to $248) and kept an overweight view, giving investors a near‑term fundamental endorsement and supporting upside expectations. Piper Sandler price target raise
• Positive Sentiment: Freedom Capital / Zacks published a “strong‑buy” upgrade, adding buy-side momentum and contributing to buying interest. Zacks / Freedom Capital upgrade
• Positive Sentiment: Diamondback recently lifted its quarterly dividend (to $1.05), which can support valuation and attract yield‑seeking investors. Dividend increase (MarketBeat)
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short‑interest prints look inconsistent (days‑to‑cover ~0.0) and appear to be data artifacts; there’s no clear evidence of aggressive short covering driving today’s move.
• Negative Sentiment: SGF FANG Holdings launched and priced a large underwritten secondary offering (~11.0M shares, ≈$1.9B gross), which increases available supply and is a clear downward pressure risk since Diamondback receives no proceeds. Secondary offering priced (TipRanks)
• Negative Sentiment: Multiple senior insiders and directors disclosed multi‑million dollar sales (including CEO Kaes Van’t Hof and Director Charles Meloy), and press coverage is highlighting executives selling into the rally — a negative signal for sentiment and confidence. Executive selling coverage (Yahoo) Director sale (InsiderTrades)
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks / AmericanBankingNews flagged downward near‑term EPS estimate revisions for FANG, which increases earnings risk ahead of future reports. Zacks negative earnings estimate

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Scotiabank set a $175.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Benchmark lowered shares of Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $187.00 to $212.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 11th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Diamondback Energy from $182.00 to $199.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $173.00 price target on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Monday, January 19th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $191.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Diamondback Energy news, Chairman Travis D. Stice sold 36,043 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.08, for a total value of $6,526,666.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the chairman directly owned 123,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,407,744.60. This trade represents a 22.56% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 7,857 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.27, for a total value of $1,439,952.39. Following the sale, the director directly owned 974,149 shares in the company, valued at $178,532,287.23. The trade was a 0.80% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 1,168,462 shares of company stock worth $192,197,747 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

FANG stock opened at $182.37 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $51.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.51 and a beta of 0.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 0.42 and a quick ratio of 0.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $164.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $152.52. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.00 and a 1 year high of $186.65.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.00 by ($0.26). The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.41 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 11.07% and a return on equity of 8.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.67 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $1.05 per share. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $4.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.87%.

About Diamondback Energy

Diamondback Energy, Inc (NASDAQ: FANG) is an independent oil and natural gas company focused on the development, exploration and production of unconventional resources in the Permian Basin. Headquartered in Midland, Texas, the company concentrates its operations in the core Midland and Delaware sub‑basins of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, where it pursues contiguous acreage positions to support repeatable drilling programs.

Diamondback’s activities span the upstream value chain, including leasehold acquisition, well planning, drilling, completion and production optimization.