Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Takes Position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 5,540 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $255,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Atria Investments Inc acquired a new stake in shares of EQT in the third quarter worth $201,000. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of EQT by 28.1% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,875 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $692,000 after acquiring an additional 4,145 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of EQT by 245.8% in the third quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 26,387 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $967,000 after acquiring an additional 18,757 shares during the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of EQT by 10.7% in the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 177,904 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $6,518,000 after acquiring an additional 17,233 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in shares of EQT by 71.4% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 30,540 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,119,000 after acquiring an additional 12,723 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Performance

EQT stock opened at $53.54 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $56.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 133.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. EQT had a return on equity of 4.35% and a net margin of 4.37%. The business had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.18%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is 157.50%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on EQT. Mizuho upgraded shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $55.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EQT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of EQT from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $49.00 price target on shares of EQT in a research note on Monday, January 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $54.50.

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.