Virtus Advisers LLC Buys New Position in Antero Midstream Corporation $AM

Virtus Advisers LLC purchased a new position in shares of Antero Midstream Corporation (NYSE:AM) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 28,528 shares of the pipeline company’s stock, valued at approximately $649,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Antero Midstream in the second quarter valued at about $869,045,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in Antero Midstream during the second quarter valued at approximately $157,371,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Antero Midstream during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $66,998,000. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd bought a new position in Antero Midstream in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,084,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in Antero Midstream by 56.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,874,379 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $69,739,000 after purchasing an additional 1,400,368 shares in the last quarter. 53.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Antero Midstream Price Performance

AM stock opened at $22.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.83. Antero Midstream Corporation has a 12 month low of $16.96 and a 12 month high of $23.83. The firm has a market cap of $10.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.52 and a beta of 0.65. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $22.21 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $21.92.

Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The pipeline company reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27. The company had revenue of $327.24 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $326.43 million. Antero Midstream had a net margin of 32.41% and a return on equity of 20.19%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.29 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Antero Midstream Corporation will post 1.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Antero Midstream Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 12th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 29th were given a dividend of $0.225 per share. This represents a $0.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 29th. Antero Midstream’s payout ratio is currently 107.14%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $24.00 target price on shares of Antero Midstream in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Antero Midstream from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut Antero Midstream from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, August 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $24.50.

Insider Buying and Selling at Antero Midstream

In other Antero Midstream news, insider Sheri Pearce sold 16,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.01, for a total transaction of $352,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 83,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,846,639. This represents a 16.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Brooks J. Klimley sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.27, for a total value of $106,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 68,204 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,450,699.08. This represents a 6.83% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 1.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About Antero Midstream

Antero Midstream Corporation is a publicly traded midstream service provider that was established in 2014 as a spin-off from Antero Resources. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the company owns, operates and develops midstream infrastructure to support the gathering, compression, processing, transportation and storage of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and crude oil. Antero Midstream plays a critical role in connecting upstream production in the Appalachian Basin to end-market pipelines and processing facilities.

The company’s core operations include a network of gathering pipelines and compression stations that serve the Marcellus and Utica shale formations across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.