Jennison Associates LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Jennison Associates LLC reduced its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 6.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 264,906 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 17,126 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $41,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of FANG. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 39.9% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,007,599 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $465,817,000 after purchasing an additional 858,446 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Diamondback Energy during the third quarter worth $128,720,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 4.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 14,266,640 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $2,209,617,000 after purchasing an additional 648,317 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 143.0% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 981,284 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $152,177,000 after purchasing an additional 577,514 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Diamondback Energy by 286.1% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 595,694 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $92,380,000 after purchasing an additional 441,411 shares in the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Jere W. Thompson III sold 2,675 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.35, for a total value of $514,536.25. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 8,485 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,632,089.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, VP Jere W. Thompson III sold 2,675 shares of Diamondback Energy stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $192.35, for a total value of $514,536.25. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 8,485 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,632,089.75. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.00, for a total value of $384,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 96,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,532,416. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 57,675 shares of company stock worth $11,311,096. Corporate insiders own 0.43% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FANG has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $224.00 to $229.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James lowered their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $190.00 to $185.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $210.00 to $255.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Susquehanna upped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $212.00 to $245.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America raised Diamondback Energy from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $129.00 to $170.00 in a report on Monday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $202.53.

Diamondback Energy Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:FANG opened at $204.37 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $191.41 and a 200-day moving average of $168.61. The firm has a market cap of $36.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79 and a beta of 1.93. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a twelve month low of $123.41 and a twelve month high of $211.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 20th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.61 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $2.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 37.36% and a return on equity of 19.56%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $5.29 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a $3.08 dividend. This is a positive change from Diamondback Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.84. This represents a $12.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 4th. Diamondback Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.76%.

Diamondback Energy Company Profile

Diamondback Energy, Inc, an independent oil and natural gas company, acquires, develops, explores, and exploits unconventional, onshore oil and natural gas reserves in the Permian Basin in West Texas. It focuses on the development of the Spraberry and Wolfcamp formations of the Midland basin; and the Wolfcamp and Bone Spring formations of the Delaware basin, which are part of the Permian Basin in West Texas and New Mexico.