JPMorgan Chase & Co. Boosts EQT (NYSE:EQT) Price Target to $58.00

EQT (NYSE:EQT - Free Report) had its price target lifted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $53.00 to $58.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the oil and gas producer's stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of EQT from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America assumed coverage on EQT in a research report on Monday, October 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $50.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on EQT from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, EQT presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $52.17.

EQT Price Performance

NYSE:EQT traded down $2.42 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $50.15. The stock had a trading volume of 13,788,858 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,422,005. EQT has a 12 month low of $30.02 and a 12 month high of $56.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.92 billion, a PE ratio of 125.37, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.58.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.19. EQT had a return on equity of 4.82% and a net margin of 4.37%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. On average, equities analysts anticipate that EQT will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. EQT's dividend payout ratio is currently 157.50%.

Insider Transactions at EQT

In other EQT news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director now owns 201,608 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,038,086.64. This represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EQT. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in EQT by 38.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 74,153,050 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $2,716,968,000 after buying an additional 20,700,921 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $3,344,371,000 after acquiring an additional 358,649 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of EQT by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,095,597 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $1,359,183,000 after acquiring an additional 7,290,822 shares during the period. Modera Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in EQT during the third quarter worth $562,494,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in EQT by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,427,307 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $663,552,000 after acquiring an additional 429,733 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.