Fisher Asset Management LLC Sells 14,373 Shares of Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Fisher Asset Management LLC lowered its stake in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 46.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 16,499 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 14,373 shares during the quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $637,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VNOM. Oaktree Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy in the third quarter worth about $240,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 28.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,906,846 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $646,180,000 after buying an additional 3,699,141 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 18.7% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,423,354 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $474,821,000 after buying an additional 1,957,417 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 452.4% during the third quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 1,661,991 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $63,521,000 after buying an additional 1,361,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 7,413.0% during the third quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,109,824 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $42,417,000 after buying an additional 1,095,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VNOM. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Viper Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, April 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Monday, April 20th. Roth Mkm restated a “buy” rating and set a $54.00 price target on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Viper Energy from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $57.86.

Viper Energy Price Performance

Viper Energy stock opened at $45.50 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $47.08 and its 200 day moving average is $42.76. Viper Energy Inc. has a one year low of $35.10 and a one year high of $51.13. The firm has a market cap of $16.34 billion, a P/E ratio of -142.18 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 6.17 and a quick ratio of 6.17.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $511.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $499.82 million. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 2.77% and a positive return on equity of 2.64%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 108.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.54 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.59 EPS for the current year.

Viper Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 14th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is -475.00%.

Viper Energy Profile

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.