EQT (NYSE:EQT) Upgraded to Overweight at Stephens

Stephens upgraded shares of EQT (NYSE:EQT - Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $59.00 target price on the oil and gas producer's stock, up from their prior target price of $41.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Scotiabank lowered EQT from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on EQT from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Mizuho raised shares of EQT from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $57.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of EQT from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $73.00 price objective for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, EQT has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $54.50.

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EQT Price Performance

EQT stock traded down $0.84 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $52.89. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,816,051 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,293,776. EQT has a 1 year low of $30.02 and a 1 year high of $56.66. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market capitalization of $31.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 132.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12. The company's fifty day moving average is $51.25 and its 200-day moving average is $44.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. On average, research analysts expect that EQT will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.19%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. EQT's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 157.50%.

Institutional Trading of EQT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in EQT by 38.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 74,153,050 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $2,716,968,000 after purchasing an additional 20,700,921 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in EQT by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,530,286 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $3,344,371,000 after purchasing an additional 358,649 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in EQT by 24.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,095,597 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $1,359,183,000 after purchasing an additional 7,290,822 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in EQT by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,427,307 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $663,552,000 after purchasing an additional 429,733 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its position in EQT by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,855,244 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $638,867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,433,632 shares during the period. 90.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.