Payden & Rygel Sells 45,850 Shares of Antero Resources Co. (NYSE:AR)

Payden & Rygel lowered its holdings in shares of Antero Resources Co. (NYSE:AR) by 92.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,910 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after selling 45,850 shares during the quarter. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Antero Resources were worth $137,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Antero Resources during the fourth quarter worth $140,020,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Antero Resources by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,661,491 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock valued at $689,135,000 after buying an additional 2,201,429 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its holdings in shares of Antero Resources by 117.9% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 1,132,725 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $42,885,000 after acquiring an additional 612,997 shares in the last quarter. Mercuria Capital Strategies LLC bought a new position in shares of Antero Resources during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $11,917,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Antero Resources by 34.7% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,018,544 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $35,700,000 after buying an additional 262,416 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.04% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AR has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho increased their price target on Antero Resources from $35.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on Antero Resources from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Antero Resources to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays raised their price objective on Antero Resources from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Antero Resources from $39.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.24.

Antero Resources Trading Down 13.8 %

Shares of AR opened at $33.43 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.35, a quick ratio of 0.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 104.47 and a beta of 3.38. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.96. Antero Resources Co. has a 12-month low of $24.53 and a 12-month high of $42.63.

Antero Resources (NYSE:AR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The oil and natural gas company reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.40 by $0.14. Antero Resources had a return on equity of 0.74% and a net margin of 2.31%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Antero Resources Co. will post 2.74 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director W Howard Keenan, Jr. sold 200,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.76, for a total value of $7,952,000.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 1,800,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $71,568,000. This trade represents a 10.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 6.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Antero Resources Company Profile

Antero Resources Corporation, an independent oil and natural gas company, engages in the development, production, exploration, and acquisition of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and oil properties in the United States. It operates in three segments: Exploration and Development; Marketing; and Equity Method Investment in Antero Midstream.