Wall Street Zen Upgrades Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) to Hold

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on VNOM. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 17th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Fourteen equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $51.43.

Viper Energy Price Performance

Viper Energy stock opened at $44.10 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $39.22. The company has a quick ratio of 3.72, a current ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $15.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -191.73 and a beta of 0.48. Viper Energy has a 12-month low of $34.71 and a 12-month high of $48.00.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.04. Viper Energy had a positive return on equity of 2.62% and a negative net margin of 4.87%.The firm had revenue of $435.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $415.51 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.04 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 87.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Viper Energy will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VNOM. Oaktree Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Viper Energy in the third quarter worth $240,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 28.0% in 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 buying an additional 3,699,141 shares during the period. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 18.7% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,423,354 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $474,821,000 after buying an additional 1,957,417 shares during the period. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Viper Energy by 452.4% in the 3rd quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 1,661,991 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $63,521,000 after buying an additional 1,361,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy in the 4th quarter valued at $52,087,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

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.