The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Raises Position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 3.2% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 150,826 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,686 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $26,512,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 21.0% during the second quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 294 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Inc. OK raised its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 2.9% in the second quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 1,929 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $339,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group raised its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 4.9% in the second quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 1,251 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $220,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators raised its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 31.7% in the fourth quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 274 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 66 shares during the period. Finally, Scotia Capital Inc. lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 19,719 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $2,822,000 after buying an additional 68 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research downgraded Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $262.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $206.00 price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. 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. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $232.00 to $221.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Diamondback Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $224.05.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Meloy sold 33,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $198.41, for a total value of $6,613,600.53. Following the sale, the director directly owned 818,197 shares in the company, valued at $162,338,466.77. This represents a 3.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Stock Down 0.2%

FANG stock opened at $204.97 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $57.40 billion, a PE ratio of 39.96 and a beta of 0.43. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $134.30 and a twelve month high of $216.90. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $197.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $192.74.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its quarterly 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 net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 10.10%. The firm had revenue of $5.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.89 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 19.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 13th were issued a dividend of $1.10 per share. This represents a $4.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 13th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 85.77%.

Diamondback Energy Profile

Diamondback Energy, Inc is an independent oil and natural gas company focused on the acquisition, development, exploration and exploitation of unconventional, onshore oil and natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The company’s operations are concentrated primarily in the Midland and Delaware sub-basins.

Diamondback produces crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids. Its activities include drilling and completing horizontal wells, operating gathering and infrastructure assets, and managing mineral and royalty interests through its Viper Energy platform.