Wells Fargo & Company Issues Positive Forecast for Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) Stock Price

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) had its price target upped by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $51.00 to $52.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 15.96% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Viper Energy from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Barclays decreased their target price on Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, TD Securities increased their price target on Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viper Energy presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $51.79.

Viper Energy Price Performance

VNOM stock traded up $0.59 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $44.84. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 421,007 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,234,045. Viper Energy has a fifty-two week low of $34.71 and a fifty-two week 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 market cap of $16.03 billion, a PE ratio of -194.97 and a beta of 0.48. The company’s 50 day moving average is $41.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.40.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share 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 analysts’ expectations of $415.51 million. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 4.87% and a positive return on equity of 2.62%. The company’s revenue was up 87.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.04 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Viper Energy will post 2.02 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Viper Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 1,672.3% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 394,067 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $15,223,000 after acquiring an additional 371,832 shares during the last quarter. Alberta Investment Management Corp purchased a new stake in Viper Energy during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,398,000. Strive Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in Viper Energy in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $97,000. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in Viper Energy by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 7,498 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 404 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caitlin John LLC increased its stake in Viper Energy by 10,886.7% in the fourth quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 8,240 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $318,000 after purchasing an additional 8,165 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.