EQT (NYSE:EQT) Reaches New 1-Year High After Analyst Upgrade

Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) hit a new 52-week high on Friday after Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on the stock from $45.00 to $55.00. Jefferies Financial Group currently has a buy rating on the stock. EQT traded as high as $48.33 and last traded at $48.06, with a volume of 725018 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $47.35.

EQT has been the subject of a number of other reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on EQT from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on EQT from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of EQT from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on shares of EQT in a research report on Friday, December 6th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $50.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.78.

Insider Transactions at EQT

In other EQT news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total transaction of $1,351,803.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 201,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,038,086.64. The trade was a 13.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in EQT by 104.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 63,507 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,327,000 after acquiring an additional 32,484 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its position in shares of EQT by 36.7% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 133,142 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,878,000 after purchasing an additional 35,733 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of EQT by 2.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,133,197 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $41,520,000 after purchasing an additional 28,129 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in EQT by 55.8% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 60,816 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,228,000 after purchasing an additional 21,789 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in EQT by 34.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $511,159,000 after purchasing an additional 3,582,418 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $43.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market cap of $28.06 billion, a PE ratio of 55.98 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. Analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

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.