EQT (NYSE:EQT) Downgraded to “Sell” Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of EQT (NYSE:EQT) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Monday morning.

EQT has been the topic of a number of other reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of EQT from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $49.00 price target on shares of EQT in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Scotiabank cut shares of EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.11.

EQT Stock Performance

Shares of EQT opened at $47.21 on Monday. EQT has a 1 year low of $30.02 and a 1 year high of $56.66. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.77. The company has a market capitalization of $28.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 118.02, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.70.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 4.35% and a net margin of 4.37%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that EQT will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 157.50%.

Institutional Trading of EQT

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. 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 purchasing an additional 32,484 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its position 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 valued at $4,878,000 after buying an additional 35,733 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in EQT by 44.2% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 53,555 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,379,000 after buying an additional 16,416 shares during the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its stake in shares of EQT by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 6,467 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of EQT by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 41,508 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,914,000 after acquiring an additional 5,489 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.