Central Bank & Trust Co. Buys 3,174 Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Central Bank & Trust Co. increased its stake in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 30,339 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,174 shares during the quarter. Central Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in EQT were worth $1,112,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on EQT. UBS Group increased their price objective on EQT from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of EQT from $43.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of EQT in a research note on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on shares of EQT from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.61.

EQT Price Performance

EQT stock opened at $36.80 on Tuesday. EQT Co. has a 52-week low of $30.02 and a 52-week high of $44.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.81 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $35.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $36.61.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.35 billion. EQT had a net margin of 5.52% and a return on equity of 3.74%. EQT’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 1.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.71%. EQT’s payout ratio is 75.00%.

About EQT

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.