Dana Investment Advisors Inc. Makes New Investment in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 31,940 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $1,221,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VNOM. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Viper Energy by 28.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,906,846 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $646,180,000 after buying an additional 3,699,141 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $198,182,000 after acquiring an additional 148,503 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,802,730 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $145,021,000 after acquiring an additional 235,374 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,687,541 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $102,476,000 after acquiring an additional 296,749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 31.5% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,243,136 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $85,337,000 after purchasing an additional 537,746 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VNOM has been the topic of several analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on Viper Energy from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $68.00 to $64.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Viper Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Sunday, January 11th. Fourteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Viper Energy has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.80.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

NASDAQ VNOM opened at $46.45 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.88, a current ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $16.70 billion, a P/E ratio of -201.95, a PEG ratio of 29.20 and a beta of 0.51. Viper Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $34.71 and a twelve month high of $48.23. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.89.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $435.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $415.51 million. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 4.87% and a positive return on equity of 2.62%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 87.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.04 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th will be paid a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. This is an increase from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 5th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -573.91%.

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.