HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC Buys 1,361,130 Shares of Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 452.4% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,661,991 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,361,130 shares during the quarter. Viper Energy makes up about 3.5% of HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $63,521,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Viper Energy by 28.0% during the 3rd 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 during the period. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of 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 worth $474,821,000 after buying an additional 1,957,417 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Viper Energy by 2.9% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,197,538 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $198,182,000 after buying an additional 148,503 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 6.6% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,802,730 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $145,021,000 after buying an additional 235,374 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 12.4% during the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 2,687,541 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $102,476,000 after buying an additional 296,749 shares during the period. 87.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Viper Energy Price Performance

VNOM stock opened at $44.20 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $41.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.37. The stock has a market cap of $15.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -192.17 and a beta of 0.48. Viper Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $34.71 and a fifty-two week high of $48.00. The company has a quick ratio of 3.72, a current ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 positive return on equity of 2.62% and a negative net margin of 4.87%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 87.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.04 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were issued a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Viper Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -660.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VNOM has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Viper Energy currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $51.71.

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.