Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 100,348 Shares of Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 30.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 426,429 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 100,348 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $16,298,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VNOM. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 38.1% in the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 47,881 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,162,000 after acquiring an additional 13,218 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 264.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 240,799 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $10,872,000 after purchasing an additional 174,684 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its position in Viper Energy by 22.7% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 204,499 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $9,233,000 after purchasing an additional 37,847 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Viper Energy by 28.3% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 359,930 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $13,724,000 after purchasing an additional 79,420 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Viper Energy by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 19,918 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $759,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VNOM has been the subject of a number of research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Viper Energy from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Viper Energy from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Mizuho increased their target price on Viper Energy from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.43.

Viper Energy Trading Up 1.0%

NASDAQ:VNOM opened at $44.10 on Friday. Viper Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $34.71 and a 12 month high of $48.00. The company has a current ratio of 3.72, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $41.32 and its 200 day moving average is $39.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.85 billion, a PE ratio of -191.73 and a beta of 0.48.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.04. Viper Energy had a positive return on equity of 2.62% and a negative net margin of 4.87%.The business had revenue of $435.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $415.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.04 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 87.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. Viper Energy’s payout ratio is presently -660.87%.

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.