EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) Shares Sold by Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.

Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. decreased its stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 30.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,440 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 3,650 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.’s holdings in EQT were worth $312,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of EQT by 22.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 64,877,405 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,405,007,000 after acquiring an additional 11,993,729 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in EQT by 27.9% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,883,694 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $737,089,000 after purchasing an additional 4,339,407 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in EQT by 8.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,865,664 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,885,590,000 after purchasing an additional 3,942,802 shares in the last quarter. Third Point LLC acquired a new stake in EQT in the fourth quarter valued at $75,387,000. Finally, Boston Partners increased its position in shares of EQT by 33.7% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,834,505 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $142,178,000 after buying an additional 966,475 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of EQT stock opened at $34.83 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 0.73 and a quick ratio of 0.73. EQT Co. has a 1-year low of $30.02 and a 1-year high of $45.23. The firm has a market cap of $15.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.24 and a beta of 1.06.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.12. The company had revenue of $952.51 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.06 billion. EQT had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 4.52%. EQT’s revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.17) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 1.44 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.81%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of EQT from $43.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Mizuho reduced their target price on EQT from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Stephens lowered their target price on EQT from $47.00 to $46.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Wolfe Research initiated coverage on EQT in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $51.00 price target for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.28.

EQT 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.