Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. Boosts Position in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 14.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 143,770 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,695 shares during the quarter. Deroy & Devereaux Private Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $5,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its position in Viper Energy by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 6,801 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $260,000 after purchasing an additional 279 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Viper Energy by 16.7% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,354 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $90,000 after buying an additional 337 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in Viper Energy by 48.7% in the second quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 1,068 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 350 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 9.7% in the second quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 4,117 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $157,000 after buying an additional 364 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its position in Viper Energy by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 8,902 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $339,000 after acquiring an additional 376 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VNOM. Mizuho increased their target price on Viper Energy from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective 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. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Viper Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 11th. Fourteen 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, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.20.

Viper Energy Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ VNOM opened at $37.32 on Friday. Viper Energy Inc. has a 12 month low of $34.71 and a 12 month high of $52.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.88, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $37.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $37.94. The stock has a market cap of $13.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.42, a P/E/G ratio of 25.24 and a beta of 0.48.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $418.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.35 million. Viper Energy had a net margin of 20.62% and a return on equity of 3.09%. Viper Energy’s revenue was up 98.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Cuts Dividend

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

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.