Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC Acquires New Shares in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 14,970 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $690,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. HM Payson & Co. bought a new position in EQT in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of EQT in the third quarter worth about $30,000. Quarry LP boosted its position in shares of EQT by 184.7% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 891 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 578 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new position in EQT during the third quarter valued at approximately $36,000. Finally, Financial Avengers Inc. increased its holdings in EQT by 100.8% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. now owns 1,004 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the period. 90.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of EQT from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Scotiabank lowered EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup raised their price target on EQT from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $52.39.

EQT Stock Performance

NYSE EQT opened at $46.47 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 116.17, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $56.66.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.36%. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 157.50%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

EQT 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.