First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Buys Shares of 15,140 Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 15,140 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $711,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of VNOM. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,916,557 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $498,967,000 after purchasing an additional 493,203 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Viper Energy by 11.1% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 1,144,863 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its stake in Viper Energy by 21.9% in the 4th 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 buying an additional 1,024,838 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Viper Energy by 2.9% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,197,538 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $198,182,000 after buying an additional 148,503 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Viper Energy by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,986,716 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $192,672,000 after buying an additional 258,082 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada initiated coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Friday, May 29th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $58.00 target price on the stock. Roth Capital set a $52.00 price target on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Barclays raised their price objective 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. Mizuho boosted their target price on Viper Energy from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised Viper Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Fifteen equities 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, Viper Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $57.57.

Viper Energy Stock Down 0.3%

VNOM stock opened at $45.14 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 6.17, a quick ratio of 6.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $44.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $44.27. Viper Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.10 and a 52 week high of $51.13. The company has a market cap of $16.21 billion, a P/E ratio of -141.06 and a beta of 0.40.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last issued its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $511.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $499.81 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 108.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 14th were paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -475.00%.

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.