Victory Capital Management Inc. Buys 234,976 Shares of Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 135.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 408,493 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 234,976 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $15,613,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Viper Energy by 28.0% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Bornite Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Viper Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $38,220,000. Merewether Investment Management LP bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,973,000. Marshall Wace LLP grew its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 199.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 1,142,619 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $43,568,000 after buying an additional 760,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 31.5% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,243,136 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $85,337,000 after buying an additional 537,746 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VNOM has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on Viper Energy from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.43.

Viper Energy Price Performance

Shares of VNOM stock opened at $43.07 on Wednesday. Viper Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.71 and a twelve month high of $48.00. The company has a current ratio of 3.72, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $39.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -187.25 and a beta of 0.48.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $435.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $415.51 million. Viper Energy had a positive return on equity of 2.62% and a negative net margin of 4.87%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 87.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.04 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a positive change from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.5%. Viper Energy’s payout ratio is -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.