Clarus Group Inc. Grows Position in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Clarus Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 52.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,529 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after buying an additional 1,567 shares during the period. Clarus Group Inc.’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $781,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Quent Capital LLC boosted its position in Diamondback Energy by 7.2% in the second quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 809 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $162,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC boosted its position in Diamondback Energy by 67.1% in the second quarter. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC now owns 137 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% in the second quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,975 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $3,999,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Diamondback Energy by 16.1% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 412 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 57 shares during the period. Finally, Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Diamondback Energy by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,667 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $734,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 90.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Diamondback Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 6th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $247.00 to $223.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $185.00 to $198.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $225.00 to $216.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their target price on Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $225.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Diamondback Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $210.09.

Diamondback Energy Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of FANG traded down $1.50 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $182.49. The company had a trading volume of 378,164 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,728,467. The company has a market capitalization of $32.55 billion, a PE ratio of 10.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a current ratio of 3.66, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $145.70 and a one year high of $214.50. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $186.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $194.71.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The oil and natural gas company reported $4.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.51 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. Diamondback Energy had a return on equity of 19.54% and a net margin of 37.51%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.68 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 19.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a None dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $2.34 per share. This represents a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This is an increase from Diamondback Energy’s previous None dividend of $2.26. Diamondback Energy’s payout ratio is presently 20.29%.

Insider Transactions at Diamondback Energy

In other news, major shareholder Lyndal Greth sold 13,212,830 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.11, for a total value of $2,313,698,661.30. Following the sale, the insider now owns 1,037,819 shares in the company, valued at $181,732,485.09. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 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.