Viper Energy Partners LP (NASDAQ:VNOM) Q4 2023 Results Conference Call February 21, 2024 12:00 PM ET

Company Participants

Adam Lawlis - Vice President, Investor Relations

Travis Stice - Chief Executive Officer

Kaes Van’t Hof - President

Austen Gilfillian - Vice President

Conference Call Participants

Neal Dingmann - Truist

Derrick Whitfield - Stifel

Paul Diamond - Citi

Leo Mariani - ROTH

Tim Rezvan - KeyBanc Capital Markets

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Viper Energy Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Adam Lawlis, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Adam Lawlis

Thank you, Victor. Good morning, and welcome to Viper Energy's Fourth Quarter 2023 Conference Call. During our call today, we will reference an updated investor presentation, which can be found on Viper's website. Representing Viper today are Travis Stice, CEO; Kaes Van’t Hof, President; and Austen Gilfillian, Vice President.

During this conference call, the participants may make certain forward-looking statements relating to the company's financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and businesses. We caution you that actual results could differ materially from those that are indicated in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors.

Information concerning these factors can be found in the company's filings with the SEC. In addition, we'll make reference to certain non-GAAP measures. The reconciliations with the appropriate GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release issued yesterday afternoon.

I'll now turn the call over to Travis Stice.

Travis Stice

Thank you, Adam. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for listening to Viper Energy's fourth quarter 2023 conference call.

The fourth quarter wrapped up a milestone year for Viper. For the full year, average oil production increased 13% compared to the previous year, while our average share count was reduced by 1% over the same period. As a result of continued strong organic production growth, creative acquisitions and an opportunistic share repurchase program, the fourth quarter represented the eighth consecutive quarter of increased production per share for Viper.

For our return of capital for the fourth quarter, we've declared a $0.29 variable dividend to Class A shareholders to go along with our $0.27 based dividend. Importantly, this variable dividend is the same that we would have paid with a 75% payout ratio, assuming we did not repurchase any shares during the quarter. However, inclusive of the $28.7 million in shares that we repurchased during the quarter, our effective payout ratio for Q4 is 97%.