Empowered Funds LLC Has $24.57 Million Holdings in Diamondback Energy, Inc. $FANG

Empowered Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ:FANG) by 19.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 139,783 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after buying an additional 22,961 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Diamondback Energy were worth $24,571,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in FANG. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Diamondback Energy by 31.5% in the 2nd quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 2,242 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 537 shares during the last quarter. Impala Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Diamondback Energy by 90.0% in the second quarter. Impala Asset Management LLC now owns 19,000 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $3,340,000 after buying an additional 9,000 shares in the last quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Diamondback Energy in the second quarter valued at about $222,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC grew its position in Diamondback Energy by 21.0% in the second quarter. Transamerica Financial Advisors LLC now owns 294 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LP acquired a new position in Diamondback Energy during the second quarter worth about $9,608,000. Institutional investors own 90.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Diamondback Energy from $220.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Raymond James Financial restated a “strong-buy” rating and issued a $248.00 target price on shares of Diamondback Energy in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Diamondback Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Diamondback Energy from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Roth Capital set a $212.00 price objective on Diamondback Energy and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $222.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Teresa L. Dick sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.90, for a total value of $1,406,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 85,755 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,228,179.50. This represents a 7.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Charles Alvin Meloy sold 33,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $198.41, for a total value of $6,613,600.53. Following the transaction, the director owned 818,197 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $162,338,466.77. This trade represents a 3.91% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 129,167 shares of company stock worth $24,714,309. Corporate insiders own 0.64% of the company’s stock.

Diamondback Energy Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ FANG opened at $200.52 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $192.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $190.44. The stock has a market cap of $56.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.09 and a beta of 0.43. Diamondback Energy, Inc. has a 52-week low of $134.30 and a 52-week high of $216.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.45 and a current ratio of 0.47.

Diamondback Energy (NASDAQ:FANG) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and natural gas company reported $6.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $6.08 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $5.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.89 billion. Diamondback Energy had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 10.10%. Diamondback Energy’s revenue was up 51.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Diamondback Energy, Inc. will post 20.13 EPS for the current year.

Diamondback Energy Announces Dividend

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

About Diamondback Energy

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.