Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Truist Financial set a $58.00 target price on Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen raised Viper Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Barclays raised their target price on Viper Energy from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $54.00 target price on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $56.43.

Viper Energy Price Performance

NASDAQ:VNOM opened at $48.36 on Tuesday. Viper Energy has a one year low of $35.10 and a one year 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. The stock has a market cap of $17.29 billion, a PE ratio of -151.12, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.42. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $46.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.96.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 positive return on equity of 2.64% and a negative net margin of 2.77%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 108.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.54 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Viper Energy will post 2.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oaktree Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Viper Energy in the third quarter valued at $240,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $646,180,000 after buying an additional 3,699,141 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake 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 valued at $474,821,000 after buying an additional 1,957,417 shares in the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Viper Energy by 452.4% in 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 buying an additional 1,361,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Encompass Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Viper Energy in the fourth quarter valued at $52,087,000. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.