William Blair Investment Management LLC Buys 59,439 Shares of Antero Resources Co. (NYSE:AR)

William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Antero Resources Co. (NYSE:AR) by 4.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,434,147 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 59,439 shares during the period. William Blair Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Antero Resources were worth $50,267,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AR. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in shares of Antero Resources by 83.7% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 26,467 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 12,062 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Antero Resources by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,852,246 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $139,054,000 after purchasing an additional 61,490 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in shares of Antero Resources by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,664,628 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $76,342,000 after purchasing an additional 122,815 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of Antero Resources by 1,423.0% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 8,544 shares of the oil and natural gas company’s stock worth $304,000 after purchasing an additional 7,983 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital CS Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Antero Resources during the 4th quarter worth approximately $615,000. 83.04% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AR shares. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Antero Resources from $28.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Antero Resources from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of Antero Resources from $44.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Antero Resources from $39.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of Antero Resources from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Antero Resources has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $40.47.

Antero Resources Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AR opened at $38.86 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $12.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 121.43 and a beta of 3.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 0.35 and a quick ratio of 0.35. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.14 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.69. Antero Resources Co. has a one year low of $24.53 and a one year high of $41.53.

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

Antero Resources 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.