Viper Energy Inc. $VNOM Position Reduced by Trilogy Capital Inc.

Key Points

• Trilogy Capital cut its stake in Viper Energy by 61.4% in Q4, selling 36,842 shares and retaining 23,118 shares worth $893,000.
• Several large institutions added or initiated big positions—Oaktree opened a new ~ $240.2M position, Vanguard now owns 16.9M shares (~$646.2M) and Capital World Investors 12.4M (~$474.8M)—leaving 87.72% of the stock owned by institutions.
• Wall Street sentiment is positive with a consensus "Moderate Buy" and a $53.33 average price target; Viper recently beat EPS and revenue estimates and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.38 (annualized yield ~3.4%).

Trilogy Capital Inc. reduced its holdings in Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM - Free Report) by 61.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,118 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after selling 36,842 shares during the quarter. Trilogy Capital Inc.'s holdings in Viper Energy were worth $893,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of VNOM. Oaktree Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy in the 3rd quarter worth about $240,215,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Viper Energy by 28.0% in 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 buying an additional 3,699,141 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Viper Energy by 18.7% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Viper Energy by 452.4% in the 3rd quarter. HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC now owns 1,661,991 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $63,521,000 after buying an additional 1,361,130 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. lifted its position in shares of Viper Energy by 7,413.0% in the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,109,824 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $42,417,000 after buying an additional 1,095,052 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VNOM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Truist Financial initiated coverage on shares of Viper Energy in a research report on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. TD Securities raised their price target 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. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $60.00 to $54.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Viper Energy from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fourteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $53.33.

Viper Energy Stock Up 0.7%

Viper Energy stock opened at $45.12 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $16.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -196.17, a PEG ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a current ratio of 3.72, a quick ratio of 3.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company's 50-day moving average price is $45.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.52. Viper Energy Inc. has a 52 week low of $35.10 and a 52 week high of $49.08.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, February 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.27 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $435.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $415.51 million. Viper Energy had a negative net margin of 4.87% and a positive return on equity of 2.62%. Viper Energy's quarterly revenue was up 87.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.04 EPS. On average, analysts expect 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 given a $0.38 dividend. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.4%. This is an increase from Viper Energy's previous quarterly dividend of $0.33. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 5th. Viper Energy's payout ratio is -660.87%.

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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