EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT - Free Report) by 39.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 700,714 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after purchasing an additional 198,227 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.16% of EQT worth $25,674,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of EQT. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new position in shares of EQT during the 1st quarter worth $2,274,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd raised its position in EQT by 563.1% during the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 29,102 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $1,079,000 after acquiring an additional 24,713 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 17.7% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 468,677 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $17,374,000 after purchasing an additional 70,325 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of EQT by 8.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,865,664 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $1,885,590,000 after purchasing an additional 3,942,802 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of EQT during the 1st quarter worth approximately $4,073,000. 90.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on EQT. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of EQT in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Stephens increased their price objective on EQT from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of EQT from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of EQT in a report on Monday, October 28th. They set a "buy" rating and a $50.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $42.83.

EQT Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE EQT traded down $0.27 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $43.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,255,315 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,056,026. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.79 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. EQT Co. has a 52-week low of $30.02 and a 52-week high of $44.28. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $36.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.71.

EQT (NYSE:EQT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 1.28 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%. EQT's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 75.00%.

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.