Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, thirteen have assigned a buy recommendation and two have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $58.3846.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on VNOM shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 12th. Truist Financial set a $58.00 price target on shares of Viper Energy in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada started coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research report on Friday, May 29th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company.

Viper Energy Price Performance

Shares of VNOM opened at $45.46 on Friday. Viper Energy has a 1-year low of $35.10 and a 1-year high of $51.13. The stock has a market cap of $16.32 billion, a PE ratio of -142.06 and a beta of 0.38. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $46.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.05. 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 announced its quarterly 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. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 2.77% and a positive return on equity of 2.64%. The business had revenue of $511.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $499.82 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.54 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 108.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Viper Energy will post 2.5 EPS for the current year.

Viper Energy Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -475.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 28.0% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,906,846 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $646,180,000 after purchasing an additional 3,699,141 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,916,557 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $498,967,000 after purchasing an additional 493,203 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,491,534 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $443,918,000 after purchasing an additional 1,144,863 shares in the last quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Viper Energy in the third quarter valued at approximately $240,215,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 21.9% in the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 5,711,539 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $220,637,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,838 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Viper Energy Company 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.