Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Takes $6.42 Million Position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 36,505 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,417,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in FANG. Boston Partners increased its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.9% during the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 5,733,538 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $821,649,000 after acquiring an additional 163,548 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,621,120 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $844,073,000 after purchasing an additional 14,625 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in Diamondback Energy by 11.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,159,365 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $775,607,000 after purchasing an additional 532,756 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 4,332,885 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $651,363,000 after purchasing an additional 534,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,828,941 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $575,605,000 after buying an additional 117,798 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on FANG. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $229.00 to $216.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 29th. Mizuho raised their target price on Diamondback Energy from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $262.00 to $263.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Diamondback Energy presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $222.30.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Diamondback Energy stock opened at $202.47 on Friday. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $134.30 and a 12 month high of $214.51. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $190.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $187.50. The company has a market cap of $56.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.47 and a beta of 0.43.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $6.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.08 by $0.40. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 10.10% and a net margin of 8.58%.The business had revenue of $5.56 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.89 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 19.73 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of $1.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 13th. This represents a $4.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 85.77%.

Insider Transactions at Diamondback Energy

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 83,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $187.12, for a total transaction of $15,593,458.08. Following the sale, the director directly owned 851,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $159,338,293.60. This represents a 8.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.90, for a total transaction of $1,406,300.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 85,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,228,179.50. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 134,167 shares of company stock worth $25,749,309 over the last 90 days. 0.64% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.