Aurora Investment Counsel Sells 117 Shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG)

Aurora Investment Counsel lessened its stake in Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 1.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 7,539 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 117 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $1,509,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quent Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 7.2% in the 2nd 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 period. Carolinas Wealth Consulting LLC raised its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 67.1% in the 2nd 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 period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 0.3% during the second quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC now owns 19,975 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $3,999,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in Diamondback Energy by 16.1% during the second 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 position in Diamondback Energy by 1.6% in the second quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,667 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $734,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

FANG has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Susquehanna cut their price objective on Diamondback Energy from $245.00 to $237.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Diamondback Energy from $255.00 to $245.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Johnson Rice downgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Diamondback Energy from $201.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their price target on Diamondback Energy from $235.00 to $209.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $207.76.

Diamondback Energy Price Performance

Shares of Diamondback Energy stock opened at $172.40 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $30.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 3.64 and a current ratio of 3.66. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $188.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $195.43. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a one year low of $143.08 and a one year high of $214.50.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 37.51% and a return on equity of 19.54%. The company had revenue of $2.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.68 earnings per share. Diamondback Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 29.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 18.97 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Increases Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Diamondback Energy news, major shareholder Lyndal Greth sold 13,212,830 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.11, for a total transaction of $2,313,698,661.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 1,037,819 shares in the company, valued at $181,732,485.09. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Diamondback Energy 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.