Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires New Position in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 114,605 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $4,380,000.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. boosted its position in shares of Viper Energy by 763.4% in the first quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 1,799,642 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $81,254,000 after purchasing an additional 1,591,212 shares during the period. Merewether Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in Viper Energy in the 2nd quarter worth $33,973,000. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 760,756 shares during the period. Woodline Partners LP raised its holdings in Viper Energy by 37.4% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 1,980,786 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $89,432,000 after acquiring an additional 539,517 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its position 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 valued at $85,337,000 after acquiring an additional 537,746 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VNOM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on Viper Energy from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, October 14th. TD Securities set a $54.00 price target on Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Roth Capital set a $50.00 price objective on shares of Viper Energy and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 26th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Finally, William Blair began coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Monday, August 25th. They set an “outperform” rating for the company. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.20.

Viper Energy Trading Down 0.8%

VNOM stock opened at $37.91 on Monday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $37.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.26. Viper Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.71 and a fifty-two week high of $52.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 6.15 and a current ratio of 1.88. The firm has a market cap of $13.63 billion, a PE ratio of 15.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 17.30 and a beta of 0.48.

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

Viper Energy Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.55%.

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.