Aventail Capital Group LP Trims Stake in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Aventail Capital Group LP reduced its holdings in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 77.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 132,940 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 444,431 shares during the period. Aventail Capital Group LP’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $5,135,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Viper Energy by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,916,557 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $498,967,000 after buying an additional 493,203 shares during the last quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Viper Energy during the third quarter valued at approximately $240,215,000. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. increased its holdings in Viper Energy by 21.9% during the fourth quarter. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. now owns 5,711,539 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $220,637,000 after buying an additional 1,024,838 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its holdings in 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 valued at $198,182,000 after buying an additional 148,503 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

VNOM opened at $43.36 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -135.50 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a fifty day moving average of $46.54 and a 200 day moving average of $43.55. Viper Energy Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $35.10 and a fifty-two week high of $51.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 6.17 and a current ratio of 6.17.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $511.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $499.82 million. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 2.77% and a positive return on equity of 2.64%. Viper Energy’s quarterly revenue was up 108.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.54 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 21st. Investors of record on Thursday, May 14th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 14th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -475.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on VNOM shares. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $60.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $56.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 2nd. TD Securities increased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 24th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $58.00 price objective on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viper Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $58.38.

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.