EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) Sees Large Decline in Short Interest

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,490,000 shares, a drop of 9.8% from the September 30th total of 21,600,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,880,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.8 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of EQT in a report on Monday. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 target price for the company. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of EQT in a report on Friday, September 13th. Citigroup upgraded shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $37.00 to $44.00 in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of EQT from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EQT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.17.

EQT Stock Performance

NYSE:EQT traded down $0.73 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $35.81. The company had a trading volume of 3,609,856 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,021,402. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. EQT has a 52 week low of $30.02 and a 52 week high of $45.23. The firm has a market cap of $15.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.51 and a beta of 1.06. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $35.20 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.60.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 earnings per share (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 4.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.30 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that EQT will post 1.42 EPS for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 75.00%.

Institutional Trading of EQT

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in EQT in the 1st quarter worth $2,274,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd increased its holdings in shares of EQT by 563.1% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 29,102 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,079,000 after buying an additional 24,713 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased 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 shares of EQT by 8.4% in the 1st 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 stake in shares of EQT in the 1st quarter worth about $4,073,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

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.