31,300 Shares in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG Acquired by S&CO Inc.

S&CO Inc. bought a new stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 31,300 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,705,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Cresset Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 37.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cresset Asset Management LLC now owns 4,726 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,288 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new position in Diamondback Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,301,000. Cerity Partners LLC grew its stake in Diamondback Energy by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 51,104 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $7,022,000 after purchasing an additional 6,069 shares in the last quarter. AXA S.A. increased its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 8.5% during the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 52,355 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $7,194,000 after buying an additional 4,103 shares during the period. Finally, Sei Investments Co. lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 37.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 154,582 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $21,239,000 after purchasing an additional 41,866 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on FANG shares. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $190.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a “strong-buy” rating and set a $242.00 price target on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Monday, April 27th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $220.00 to $224.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, April 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $187.00 to $212.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $237.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $218.25.

Diamondback Energy Stock Up 1.6%

FANG opened at $203.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.55 and a current ratio of 0.56. The company has a market cap of $57.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 236.70 and a beta of 0.46. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $132.20 and a one year high of $214.51. The business’s fifty day moving average is $191.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $167.76.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.74 by $0.49. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 1.87%.The business had revenue of $4.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.83 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.54 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 19.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 14th will be given a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 14th. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.05. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 511.63%.

Insider Transactions at Diamondback Energy

In other news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 7,857 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $189.20, for a total value of $1,486,544.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 942,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $178,362,813.20. The trade was a 0.83% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Matt Zmigrosky sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.10, for a total transaction of $1,000,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 51,392 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,283,539.20. This trade represents a 8.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 169,321 shares of company stock worth $31,055,475 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

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.