EQT (NYSE:EQT) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) shares gapped up before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $44.32, but opened at $46.35. EQT shares last traded at $45.81, with a volume of 2,053,760 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on EQT shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of EQT from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Mizuho upgraded shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of EQT from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price target on EQT from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.61.

EQT Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market cap of $27.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.33 and a beta of 1.14. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $42.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.62.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.06. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.30 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th were paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 6th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other EQT news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the 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. This trade represents a 13.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EQT

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of EQT. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in EQT by 24.0% during the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 22,090 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $817,000 after buying an additional 4,272 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its holdings in EQT by 83.9% during the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 4,814 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $178,000 after purchasing an additional 2,196 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd lifted its position in EQT by 3.8% in the second quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 41,743 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,544,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System boosted its holdings in EQT by 24.1% in the 2nd quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 34,143 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,263,000 after purchasing an additional 6,625 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in EQT by 11.5% during the 2nd quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 6,324 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $234,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the period. 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.