Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund Boosts Stock Holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund increased its stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 51,190 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in EQT were worth $2,360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. National Pension Service increased its holdings in EQT by 15.0% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 870,013 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $40,116,000 after acquiring an additional 113,600 shares in the last quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC purchased a new stake in EQT in the 4th quarter worth $214,000. Rothschild Investment LLC increased its holdings in EQT by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 46,246 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,132,000 after acquiring an additional 777 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA purchased a new stake in EQT in the 4th quarter worth $3,022,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in EQT by 33.1% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,199 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 298 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Down 4.8 %

Shares of EQT opened at $46.47 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $27.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 116.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.08. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $56.66. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $50.06 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) 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. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. EQT had a net margin of 4.37% and a return on equity of 4.35%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on EQT shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of EQT from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Scotiabank cut shares of EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $55.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of EQT from $41.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of EQT from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Two equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $52.39.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other EQT news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the business’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 sale, the director now directly owns 201,608 shares in the company, valued at $9,038,086.64. This represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

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.