Saudi Central Bank Buys 6,418 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Saudi Central Bank grew its stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 93.4% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,292 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after buying an additional 6,418 shares during the quarter. Saudi Central Bank’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $2,336,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in Diamondback Energy in the second quarter worth $3,303,362,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter valued at about $852,791,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Diamondback Energy by 31.3% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 16,420,247 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $2,886,351,000 after purchasing an additional 3,918,943 shares in the last quarter. Diamond Hill Capital Management LLC Investment Advisor bought a new stake in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter worth about $268,855,000. Finally, EnCap Energy Capital Fund XII L.P. bought a new stake in Diamondback Energy during the fourth quarter worth about $169,342,000. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $246.00 to $243.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $237.00 to $241.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research cut shares of Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Barclays lowered their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $262.00 to $263.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Diamondback Energy news, Director Charles Meloy sold 33,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.41, for a total transaction of $6,613,600.53. Following the transaction, the director owned 818,197 shares in the company, valued at approximately $162,338,466.77. This represents a 3.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FANG opened at $199.22 on Tuesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $195.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $192.07. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 12 month low of $134.30 and a 12 month high of $216.90. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $55.79 billion, a PE ratio of 38.83 and a beta of 0.43.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $6.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 analyst estimates of $4.89 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 20.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Dividend Announcement

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

Diamondback Energy Profile

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.