EQT (NYSE:EQT) Reaches New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) reached 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 trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $47.35.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on EQT. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a research note on Tuesday, December 3rd. Truist Financial lifted their target price on EQT from $32.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on EQT from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Mizuho raised shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on EQT from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.78.

Insider Transactions at EQT

In related news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total value of $1,351,803.82. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 201,608 shares in the company, valued at $9,038,086.64. This trade represents a 13.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of EQT in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,272,000. General Partner Inc. bought a new stake in shares of EQT during the 4th quarter valued at $266,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in EQT by 65.8% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 8,400 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $387,000 after buying an additional 3,333 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in EQT by 144.6% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,052 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $95,000 after purchasing an additional 1,213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 39.4% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 700,714 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $25,674,000 after buying an additional 198,227 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EQT Stock Performance

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

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.06. EQT had a net margin of 5.52% and a return on equity of 3.74%. The business had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.30 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th were given a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.34%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 75.00%.

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.