Short Interest in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) Decreases By 19.5%

Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 10,627,731 shares, a drop of 19.5% from the March 15th total of 13,204,484 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,589,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days. Currently, 3.0% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viper Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VNOM. Oaktree Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Viper Energy in the third quarter worth approximately $240,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Viper Energy by 28.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,699,141 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Viper Energy by 18.7% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,423,354 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $474,821,000 after purchasing an additional 1,957,417 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Viper Energy by 452.4% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 1,361,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $52,087,000. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Viper Energy from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. TD Securities boosted their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $54.47.

Viper Energy Trading Up 3.2%

Shares of VNOM stock opened at $46.50 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -202.17, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.50. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.40 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a current ratio of 3.72. Viper Energy has a fifty-two week low of $35.10 and a fifty-two week high of $49.08.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last issued its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $435.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 87.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.04 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Viper Energy will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a $0.38 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. This is an increase from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.3%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently -660.87%.

Viper Energy Company 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.