Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM Shares Acquired by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 14.5% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 414,750 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 52,423 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $19,489,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VNOM. U.S. Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy in the fourth quarter worth $1,543,000. Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,637,000. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,777,000. Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy during the fourth quarter valued at about $1,332,000. Finally, Deprince Race & Zollo Inc. acquired a new stake in Viper Energy in the fourth quarter worth about $4,493,000. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $49.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Viper Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 4th. Royal Bank Of Canada assumed coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Friday, May 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $58.00 price target for the company. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.54.

Viper Energy Trading Up 1.1%

Shares of Viper Energy stock opened at $44.86 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 6.17, a current ratio of 6.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The firm has a market cap of $16.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -140.18 and a beta of 0.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $44.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $44.18. Viper Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.10 and a fifty-two week high of $51.13.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $511.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $499.81 million. Viper Energy had a positive return on equity of 2.64% and a negative net margin of 2.77%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 108.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.54 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 14th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -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.