Townsend & Associates Inc Buys Shares of 14,249 Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Townsend & Associates Inc bought a new stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 14,249 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,061,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Unison Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 0.8% in the second quarter. Unison Advisors LLC now owns 15,825 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $2,174,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 5.0% in the second quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 4,367 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $600,000 after acquiring an additional 206 shares during the last quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 13.9% in the second quarter. Sentry Investment Management LLC now owns 2,771 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $398,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Uhlmann Price Securities LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 1.3% in the second quarter. Uhlmann Price Securities LLC now owns 5,090 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $699,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC lifted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 0.8% in the second quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 98,905 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $13,590,000 after acquiring an additional 760 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $186.00 to $184.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $163.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Melius began coverage on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $213.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $185.00 to $178.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, October 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $189.91.

Diamondback Energy Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of FANG stock opened at $139.09 on Monday. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 1 year low of $114.00 and a 1 year high of $186.74. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $142.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $140.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.89 and a beta of 1.04. The company has a current ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 4th. The oil and natural gas company reported $2.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.72 by ($0.05). Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 9.48% and a net margin of 27.25%.The company had revenue of $3.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.52 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 48.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 15.49 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, August 14th were given a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $4.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.9%. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is 28.43%.

Insider Transactions at Diamondback Energy

In related news, Chairman Travis D. Stice sold 20,400 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.80, for a total transaction of $2,913,120.00. Following the transaction, the chairman owned 102,145 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,586,306. The trade was a 16.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

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.