Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on EQT (NYSE:EQT)

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders acquired 22,623 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 71% compared to the average daily volume of 13,260 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on EQT shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of EQT from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of EQT from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Stephens lifted their target price on EQT from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on EQT from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.61.

EQT Stock Up 5.0 %

Shares of EQT stock traded up $2.21 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $46.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,993,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,118,053. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.51. EQT has a one year low of $30.02 and a one year high of $48.02. The company has a market capitalization of $27.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.39 and a beta of 1.14. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $42.41 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $37.62.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.35 billion. EQT had a net margin of 5.52% and a return on equity of 3.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that EQT will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.35%. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total transaction of $1,351,803.82. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On EQT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQT. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew 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 valued at $2,327,000 after buying an additional 32,484 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in EQT by 36.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 133,142 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,878,000 after purchasing an additional 35,733 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in EQT by 2.5% in the 3rd 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 during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its position in shares of EQT by 55.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 60,816 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,228,000 after purchasing an additional 21,789 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of EQT by 34.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $511,159,000 after buying an additional 3,582,418 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.