Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM) was upgraded by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $26.00 price objective on the pipeline company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 25.93% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on AM. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Antero Midstream from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Antero Midstream from $18.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on Antero Midstream from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 25th. Zacks Research cut Antero Midstream from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Antero Midstream from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Antero Midstream currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $24.00.

Antero Midstream Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of Antero Midstream stock opened at $20.65 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.56. The company has a market cap of $9.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.01 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a current ratio of 3.41, a quick ratio of 3.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.63. Antero Midstream has a 1 year low of $16.24 and a 1 year high of $23.83.

Antero Midstream (NYSE:AM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 11th. The pipeline company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.24 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $297.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $292.46 million. Antero Midstream had a return on equity of 20.12% and a net margin of 34.77%.The company’s revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.23 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Antero Midstream will post 1.14 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Antero Midstream news, insider Sheri Pearce sold 14,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $22.76, for a total transaction of $318,640.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 99,900 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,273,724. The trade was a 12.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Brooks J. Klimley sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.16, for a total value of $115,800.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 69,680 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,613,788.80. This represents a 6.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 44,000 shares of company stock worth $1,004,690. 0.86% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Antero Midstream

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Antero Midstream by 0.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 37,213,184 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $723,424,000 after buying an additional 124,102 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Antero Midstream by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 23,444,026 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $417,069,000 after buying an additional 776,791 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Antero Midstream by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,337,298 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $201,691,000 after buying an additional 187,912 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Antero Midstream by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,472,491 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $186,328,000 after buying an additional 1,161,684 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Antero Midstream by 0.8% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 9,224,028 shares of the pipeline company’s stock valued at $179,316,000 after buying an additional 71,606 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 53.97% of the company’s stock.

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.