Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) Stock Dropped to “Hold” by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on VNOM. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viper Energy in a report on Friday, July 17th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Viper Energy from $49.00 to $46.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Citigroup dropped their target price on Viper Energy from $57.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Barclays cut their price target on Viper Energy from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $57.00 price target on Viper Energy in a report on Friday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viper Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $56.53.

Viper Energy Stock Performance

Shares of Viper Energy stock opened at $42.99 on Friday. Viper Energy has a fifty-two week low of $35.10 and a fifty-two week high of $51.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 6.37 and a quick ratio of 6.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 330.72 and a beta of 0.50. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $42.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $44.53.

Viper Energy (NASDAQ:VNOM) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.76 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76. The firm had revenue of $677.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $643.45 million. Viper Energy had a net margin of 2.89% and a return on equity of 3.43%. The company’s revenue was up 127.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.41 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Viper Energy will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viper Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.29 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 13th. This represents a dividend yield of 281.0%. Viper Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 1,169.23%.

Institutional Trading of Viper Energy

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Viper Energy during the fourth quarter valued at $52,087,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in Viper Energy during the 1st quarter worth about $37,464,000. Bornite Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Viper Energy by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Bornite Capital Management LP now owns 1,500,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $57,945,000 after acquiring an additional 500,000 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Viper Energy by 1,672.3% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 394,067 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $15,223,000 after acquiring an additional 371,832 shares during the period. Finally, Ashford Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Viper Energy in the 1st quarter worth about $16,103,000. Institutional investors own 87.72% of the company’s stock.

More Viper Energy News

Here are the key news stories impacting Viper Energy this week:

• Positive Sentiment: RBC raised its price target to $57 from $55 and maintained an Outperform rating, signaling increased confidence in Viper Energy’s valuation and potential upside. RBC Lifts Price Target on Viper Energy to $57 From $55, Keeps Outperform Rating
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks Research continues to rate VNOM a Strong Buy and increased its Q4 2027 EPS estimate to $0.55 from $0.51 and its Q1 2028 estimate to $0.56 from $0.55. These increases provide some support for the bullish outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: Viper Energy is approaching its November 2 earnings report, which could become the next major catalyst as investors assess production, commodity-price exposure and management’s outlook. Viper Energy Stock Heads Toward November 2 Results
• Neutral Sentiment: Reported short interest was zero shares as of October 9, implying a zero-day days-to-cover ratio based on average volume. Because the reported “significant increase” conflicts with the zero-share figure, the data may be unreliable and should not be treated as a meaningful change in bearish positioning.
• Negative Sentiment: Zacks lowered several 2027 forecasts: Q1 EPS to $0.55 from $0.64, Q2 to $0.57 from $0.58, Q3 to $0.54 from $0.56, and full-year 2027 EPS to $2.22 from $2.29. The reductions temper the impact of the higher price target, despite Zacks retaining its Strong Buy rating.

Viper Energy Company Profile

Viper Energy, Inc (NASDAQ: VNOM) is an oil and gas company that owns and acquires mineral, royalty and overriding royalty interests in properties operated primarily by other exploration and production companies. Its interests provide exposure to production from wells without requiring Viper to fund most drilling and completion activities.

The company’s assets are concentrated in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, including the Midland and Delaware sub-basins. Viper’s interests are associated mainly with oil and natural gas development and generate revenue from its share of production, while its broad and diversified ownership position spans numerous wells and acreage holdings.

Viper Energy was established as Viper Energy Partners and became a publicly traded master limited partnership in 2014.