Short Interest in Hess Midstream LP (NYSE:HESM) Rises By 44.9%

Hess Midstream LP (NYSE:HESM) saw a significant increase in short interest in March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,260,000 shares, an increase of 44.9% from the February 28th total of 4,320,000 shares. Currently, 2.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,290,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.9 days.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Blackrock Portfolio Management sold 11,000,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $39.11, for a total value of $430,210,000.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hess Midstream

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of HESM. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its stake in Hess Midstream by 12.3% during the fourth quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 89,624 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,319,000 after acquiring an additional 9,808 shares in the last quarter. Investment Management Corp VA ADV bought a new position in Hess Midstream in the 4th quarter valued at $315,000. Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Hess Midstream during the 4th quarter valued at $23,415,000. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in shares of Hess Midstream in the fourth quarter worth $1,255,000. Finally, WBI Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Hess Midstream by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. WBI Investments LLC now owns 18,309 shares of the company’s stock worth $678,000 after buying an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. 98.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HESM has been the topic of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Hess Midstream from $39.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Hess Midstream from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Hess Midstream from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their target price on Hess Midstream from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.00.

Hess Midstream Stock Performance

HESM traded up $0.14 on Friday, hitting $42.51. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 754,386 shares, compared to its average volume of 970,965. Hess Midstream has a 12 month low of $32.75 and a 12 month high of $44.05. The firm has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.07 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.85. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.07.

Hess Midstream (NYSE:HESM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 29th. The company reported $0.68 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.03. Hess Midstream had a return on equity of 54.59% and a net margin of 14.92%. Analysts forecast that Hess Midstream will post 2.5 EPS for the current year.

Hess Midstream Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 6th were issued a dividend of $0.7012 per share. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 6th. This is a positive change from Hess Midstream’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Hess Midstream’s payout ratio is presently 112.45%.

About Hess Midstream

Hess Midstream LP owns, develops, operates, and acquires midstream assets and provide fee-based services to Hess and third-party customers in the United States. It operates through three segments: Gathering; Processing and Storage; and Terminaling and Export. The Gathering segment owns natural gas gathering and compression systems; crude oil gathering systems; and produced water gathering and disposal facilities.