Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) Shares Down 5.8% – What’s Next?

Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM)’s share price traded down 5.8% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $36.36 and last traded at $36.5430. 827,562 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 32% from the average session volume of 1,210,757 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.78.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on VNOM. TD Securities set a $54.00 price target on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Viper Energy from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on Viper Energy from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.20.

Viper Energy Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $13.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.27, a P/E/G ratio of 23.18 and a beta of 0.48. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $38.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.07.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its 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. Viper Energy had a return on equity of 3.09% and a net margin of 20.62%.The company had revenue of $418.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $389.35 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. Viper Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 98.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were paid a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 13th. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently 54.55%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viper Energy

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oaktree Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Viper Energy in the third quarter valued at $240,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 valued at $646,180,000 after buying an additional 3,699,141 shares during the period. Capital World Investors raised its position in Viper Energy by 18.7% during the third 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 lifted its stake in 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 worth $63,521,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its stake in Viper Energy by 7,413.0% in the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,109,824 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $42,417,000 after acquiring an additional 1,095,052 shares in the last quarter. 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.