Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM Shares Purchased by Retirement Systems of Alabama

Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 25.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 426,191 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 86,677 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $16,289,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 2.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,197,538 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $198,182,000 after purchasing an additional 148,503 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,802,730 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $145,021,000 after buying an additional 235,374 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,687,541 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $102,476,000 after buying an additional 296,749 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 31.5% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,243,136 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $85,337,000 after buying an additional 537,746 shares during the period. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 6.1% in the second quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 1,711,181 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $65,247,000 after buying an additional 98,742 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VNOM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Viper Energy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. They set a “hold” rating and a $38.00 price target for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $53.73.

Viper Energy Trading Up 1.9%

Shares of VNOM opened at $40.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.88. Viper Energy Inc. has a 1-year low of $34.71 and a 1-year high of $52.03. The stock has a market cap of $14.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 24.74 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.98.

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

Viper Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Viper Energy’s payout ratio is 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.