Natixis Advisors LLC Grows Stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 118.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 389,448 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 211,544 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in EQT were worth $17,957,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of EQT. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in EQT by 38.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 74,153,050 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,716,968,000 after purchasing an additional 20,700,921 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in EQT by 24.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,095,597 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,359,183,000 after purchasing an additional 7,290,822 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in EQT by 34.4% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $511,159,000 after purchasing an additional 3,582,418 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in EQT by 386.9% during the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,347,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $205,830,000 after purchasing an additional 3,454,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in EQT during the third quarter valued at $97,979,000. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EQT Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of EQT stock opened at $52.55 on Wednesday. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $56.66. The company has a current ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $50.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $43.85. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. Equities research analysts predict that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.20%. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 157.50%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on EQT. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com upgraded EQT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on EQT from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on EQT from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $54.22.

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.