Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of EQT Call Options (NYSE:EQT)

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock investors bought 50,875 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 350% compared to the typical volume of 11,309 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com raised EQT to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on EQT from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America started coverage on EQT in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price on the stock. Stephens boosted their target price on EQT from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup raised EQT from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.83.

EQT Stock Up 5.6 %

EQT stock opened at $46.53 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $37.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $27.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.48 and a beta of 1.06. EQT has a twelve month low of $30.02 and a twelve month high of $46.86.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 3.74% and a net margin of 5.52%. EQT’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.30 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that EQT will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

Institutional Trading of EQT

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in shares of EQT during the 1st quarter valued at $2,274,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 563.1% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 29,102 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,079,000 after purchasing an additional 24,713 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of EQT during the 1st quarter valued at $4,073,000. Virtu Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 184.3% during the 1st quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 53,138 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,970,000 after purchasing an additional 34,446 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 71.7% during the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 215,158 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,883,000 after purchasing an additional 89,866 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Company Profile

EQT Corporation operates as a natural gas production company in the United States. The company sells natural gas and natural gas liquids to marketers, utilities, and industrial customers through pipelines located in the Appalachian Basin. It also offers marketing services and contractual pipeline capacity management services.