Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM) Short Interest Down 19.5% in March

Key Points

• Short interest down 19.5% in March to 10,627,731 shares (about 3.0% of shares sold short) with a days-to-cover ratio of 3.0, indicating reduced bearish positioning.
• Analysts have raised ratings and targets—driving a consensus Buy rating and a $54.47 consensus price target—after upgrades from Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and new coverage from Truist.
• Viper beat quarterly estimates (EPS $0.31 vs. $0.27 expected) and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.38 (annualized $1.52), implying a roughly 3.3% yield.

Viper Energy Inc. (NASDAQ:VNOM - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 10,627,731 shares, a drop of 19.5% from the March 15th total of 13,204,484 shares. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,589,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on VNOM shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c)" rating on shares of Viper Energy in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Viper Energy from $44.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Viper Energy from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Wall Street Zen raised Viper Energy from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Truist Financial started coverage on Viper Energy in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $54.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, fifteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $54.47.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

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

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

Viper Energy Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 12th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.38 per share. 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. This represents a $1.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Viper Energy's payout ratio is -660.87%.

Institutional Trading of Viper Energy

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,699,141 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 493,203 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Viper Energy by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,491,534 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $443,918,000 after purchasing an additional 1,144,863 shares in the last quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy during the third quarter worth about $240,215,000. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. raised its position in shares of 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 worth $220,637,000 after acquiring an additional 1,024,838 shares during the last quarter. 87.72% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Viper Energy Company 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.

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