Westpac Banking Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Westpac Banking Corp lowered its position in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 63.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,872 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 4,955 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in EQT were worth $132,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of EQT by 104.7% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 63,507 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,327,000 after purchasing an additional 32,484 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its holdings in EQT by 36.7% in the 3rd quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 133,142 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,878,000 after buying an additional 35,733 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of EQT by 44.2% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 53,555 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,379,000 after buying an additional 16,416 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of EQT by 2.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,133,197 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $41,520,000 after buying an additional 28,129 shares during the period. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 13.4% during the fourth quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 6,467 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $298,000 after acquiring an additional 762 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Down 11.6 %

Shares of EQT stock opened at $46.02 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $51.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.50 billion, a PE ratio of 115.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12. EQT Co. has a 52-week low of $30.02 and a 52-week high of $56.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.70.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. EQT had a net margin of 4.37% and a return on equity of 4.35%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a dividend of $0.1575 per share. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 157.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

EQT has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EQT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Stephens upgraded shares of EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $59.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on EQT from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their target price on EQT from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.28.

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.