Motley Fool Asset Management LLC Makes New Investment in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Motley Fool Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,525 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $252,000.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of EQT. Compound Global Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of EQT by 130.2% in the fourth quarter. Compound Global Advisors LLC now owns 409,545 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $15,833,000 after purchasing an additional 231,651 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in EQT by 212.1% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 174,346 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $6,740,000 after acquiring an additional 118,482 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its stake in shares of EQT by 14.1% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 511,988 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $19,793,000 after purchasing an additional 63,190 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in EQT by 8.6% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,899,640 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,822,027,000 after buying an additional 3,539,661 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in EQT by 6.5% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 18,037,923 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $731,979,000 after buying an additional 1,098,211 shares during the period. 90.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EQT Stock Performance

Shares of EQT stock opened at $40.61 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.93 billion, a PE ratio of 29.43 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $36.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $37.99. EQT Co. has a 52 week low of $30.84 and a 52 week high of $45.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.17. EQT had a return on equity of 4.57% and a net margin of 10.96%. The firm had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.70 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 28.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.55%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.65%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on EQT. TD Cowen began coverage on EQT in a report on Friday, April 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 target price on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on EQT from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $27.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho upped their target price on shares of EQT from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of EQT from $47.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 19th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EQT has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.25.

About EQT

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.