EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) Short Interest Update

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) was the target of a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 16,140,000 shares, a drop of 19.8% from the March 15th total of 20,130,000 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 8,830,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EQT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EQT. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in EQT by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 72,530,286 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,344,371,000 after purchasing an additional 358,649 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in EQT by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,427,307 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $663,552,000 after buying an additional 429,733 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in EQT by 21.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,855,244 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $638,867,000 after buying an additional 2,433,632 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its holdings in EQT by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,829,938 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $637,698,000 after acquiring an additional 1,774,696 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of EQT by 46.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,143,774 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $606,059,000 after acquiring an additional 4,162,065 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

EQT Price Performance

Shares of EQT traded down $3.38 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $47.60. The stock had a trading volume of 8,261,883 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,786,125. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.44 billion, a PE ratio of 119.00, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.35. EQT has a 12 month low of $30.02 and a 12 month 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. The company’s 50-day moving average is $50.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $46.82.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.19. EQT had a net margin of 4.37% and a return on equity of 4.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. Research analysts expect that EQT will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.32%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 157.50%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on EQT shares. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of EQT from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. StockNews.com lowered EQT from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, EQT has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.56.

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.