Stephens Investment Management Group LLC Sells 37,582 Shares of Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Stephens Investment Management Group LLC reduced its position in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,136,895 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 37,582 shares during the period. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $43,452,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Beacon Pointe Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viper Energy during the 2nd quarter worth $608,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in Viper Energy by 15.1% during the second quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 303,909 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $11,588,000 after buying an additional 39,867 shares during the period. Howard Financial Services LTD. boosted its stake in Viper Energy by 140.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Financial Services LTD. now owns 48,760 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,864,000 after buying an additional 28,498 shares during the last quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. grew its holdings in Viper Energy by 190.4% in the 3rd quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc. now owns 59,960 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after buying an additional 39,315 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 3.9% during the 2nd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 41,242 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,573,000 after acquiring an additional 1,532 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on VNOM shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Viper Energy from $49.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 17th. TD Securities set a $54.00 target price on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, September 30th. Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Viper Energy from $51.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Barclays increased their price target on Viper Energy from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Viper Energy from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Fourteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.20.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Viper Energy stock opened at $36.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.88 and a current ratio of 1.88. Viper Energy Inc. has a 1 year low of $34.71 and a 1 year high of $52.03. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.93. The firm has a market cap of $13.28 billion, a PE ratio of 15.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 24.88 and a beta of 0.48.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $418.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $389.35 million. Viper Energy had a return on equity of 3.09% and a net margin of 20.62%.Viper Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 98.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th were given a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, November 13th. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.55%.

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.