JPMorgan Chase & Co. Increases Holdings in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 40.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 428,168 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 124,259 shares during the quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. owned 0.12% of Viper Energy worth $16,365,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VNOM. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. bought a new position in Viper Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $31,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy during the third quarter valued at about $38,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 503.3% in the third quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,086 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 906 shares in the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 68.3% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,400 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bogart Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, March 12th. TD Securities boosted their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on Viper Energy from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $51.93.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ VNOM opened at $47.82 on Friday. Viper Energy Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.71 and a 52-week high of $49.08. The company has a fifty day moving average of $43.68 and a 200-day moving average of $39.90. The company has a market capitalization of $17.10 billion, a P/E ratio of -207.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a current ratio of 3.72.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.04 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 87.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.2%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently -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.