Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) Price Target Raised to $49.00 at Morgan Stanley

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) had its price objective hoisted by Morgan Stanley from $44.00 to $49.00 in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on VNOM. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $45.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $64.00 to $68.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $54.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viper Energy has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $52.27.

Viper Energy Price Performance

Shares of Viper Energy stock opened at $47.85 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $43.90 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.97. Viper Energy has a twelve month low of $34.71 and a twelve month high of $49.08. The company has a current ratio of 3.72, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -208.03, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 0.48.

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

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 5th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This is a boost from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.2%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -660.87%.

Institutional Trading of Viper Energy

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VNOM. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viper Energy during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Steigerwald Gordon & Koch Inc. acquired a new stake in Viper Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,000. Ameriflex Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Viper Energy during the 3rd quarter valued at $38,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC increased its stake in Viper Energy by 503.3% during the 3rd quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,086 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $42,000 after buying an additional 906 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC increased its stake in Viper Energy by 68.3% during the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,400 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $54,000 after buying an additional 568 shares during the period. 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.