Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC Buys New Shares in Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM

Key Points

• Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake of 42,384 shares in Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) in Q4 valued at about $1.64M, joining other large institutional increases; institutions now own ~87.72% of the stock.
• Viper Energy beat Q4 estimates with EPS $0.31 and revenue of $435M (up 87.6% y/y), raised its quarterly dividend to $0.38 (annualized $1.52, ~3.3% yield), and has multiple analyst upgrades with a consensus target of about $54.47 while trading near $46.50 (market cap ~$16.6B).

Taylor Frigon Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 42,384 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock, valued at approximately $1,637,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VNOM. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake 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 valued at $2,162,000 after purchasing an additional 13,218 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $10,872,000 after purchasing an additional 174,684 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $9,233,000 after purchasing an additional 37,847 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $487,000 after purchasing an additional 3,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Guggenheim Capital LLC raised its stake 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 valued at $878,000 after purchasing an additional 1,405 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Viper Energy Stock Up 3.2%

VNOM opened at $46.50 on Thursday. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $45.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a current ratio of 3.72. Viper Energy Inc. has a twelve month low of $35.10 and a twelve month high of $49.08. The firm has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -202.17, a PEG ratio of 1.00 and a beta of 0.50.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.04. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 4.87% and a positive return on equity of 2.62%. The business had revenue of $435.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $415.51 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.04 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 87.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Viper Energy Inc. will post 2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The company 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 3.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. This is a positive change from Viper Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. Viper Energy's payout ratio is currently -660.87%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial assumed coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They set a "buy" rating and a $54.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Viper Energy from $44.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Viper Energy from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $55.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday. 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viper Energy currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $54.47.

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.

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