Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM Shares Purchased by State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lifted its stake in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 25.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 59,108 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,034 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $2,283,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 38.1% during the 1st quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 47,881 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,162,000 after buying an additional 13,218 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 264.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 240,799 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $10,872,000 after buying an additional 174,684 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 22.7% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 204,499 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $9,233,000 after buying an additional 37,847 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 30.7% during the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 12,785 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $487,000 after buying an additional 3,005 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Guggenheim Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Viper Energy by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Guggenheim Capital LLC now owns 23,028 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $878,000 after buying an additional 1,405 shares in the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VNOM has been the topic of a number of research reports. Truist Financial set a $58.00 target price on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, March 7th. TD Securities increased their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $44.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viper Energy has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $56.43.

Viper Energy Price Performance

Shares of VNOM opened at $46.79 on Friday. Viper Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.10 and a twelve month high of $51.13. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $46.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $41.67. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -146.21, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a current ratio of 6.17, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, May 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.43 by $0.12. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 2.77% and a positive return on equity of 2.64%. The business had revenue of $511.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $499.82 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.54 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 108.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 21st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 14th will be issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.2%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 14th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -475.00%.

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.