49,969 Shares in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM Acquired by Ethic Inc.

Ethic Inc. bought a new position in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 49,969 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,910,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Financial Gravity Companies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Viper Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. AlphaQuest LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viper Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $41,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in Viper Energy by 48.7% during the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,068 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Viper Energy by 82.5% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,181 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Viper Energy by 65.6% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,217 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 482 shares during the period. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Viper Energy in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen downgraded Viper Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday, October 26th. TD Securities set a $54.00 price objective on Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.20.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

Shares of VNOM opened at $38.63 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.96, a P/E/G ratio of 18.00 and a beta of 0.48. Viper Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $34.71 and a 52 week high of $52.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $37.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $38.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.88.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. Viper Energy had a return on equity of 3.09% and a net margin of 20.62%.The company had revenue of $418.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $389.35 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 98.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were issued a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.55%.

About Viper Energy

Viper Energy Partners LP is a publicly traded master limited partnership that owns and intends to acquire mineral and royalty interests in oil and natural gas properties. As a pass-through entity, Viper Energy Partners does not engage in drilling or production operations directly; instead, it generates revenues by holding overriding royalty interests, mineral fee interests and royalty fee interests. These interests entitle the partnership to receive a percentage of the proceeds from hydrocarbons produced and sold by third-party operators.

The partnership’s assets are concentrated in the Permian Basin, with a primary focus on the Delaware Basin region of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico.