Diamondback Energy Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:FANG)
by Teresa Graham · The Cerbat GemDiamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG – Get Free Report) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 5,205 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 48% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,527 put options.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Several analysts recently issued reports on FANG shares. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Diamondback Energy from $222.00 to $219.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, December 6th. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $180.00 to $176.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Monday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $160.00 to $169.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $188.76.
View Our Latest Stock Report on FANG
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 377,911 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $138.61, for a total value of $52,382,243.71. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,044,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $144,828,599.04. This represents a 26.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Trading of Diamondback Energy
Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 30.6% in the first quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 3,271 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $523,000 after buying an additional 766 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in Diamondback Energy by 7.5% in the 1st quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,959 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $466,000 after acquiring an additional 207 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank grew its position in Diamondback Energy by 20.1% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 71,430 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $11,420,000 after acquiring an additional 11,952 shares during the last quarter. Keeley Teton Advisors LLC increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 1.1% in the first quarter. Keeley Teton Advisors LLC now owns 12,245 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $1,958,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 33.9% during the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 13,071 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,090,000 after purchasing an additional 3,306 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Diamondback Energy Trading Down 1.0%
Shares of NASDAQ:FANG traded down $1.46 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $146.70. The company had a trading volume of 268,551 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,218,020. The stock has a market cap of $42.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.20 and a beta of 0.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 0.62 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $147.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $144.88. Diamondback Energy has a one year low of $114.00 and a one year high of $180.91.
Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG – Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.94 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $3.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.48 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 9.57% and a net margin of 27.32%.Diamondback Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 48.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy will post 15.49 earnings per share for the current year.
Diamondback Energy Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were issued a $1.00 dividend. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.80%.
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.