Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. Acquires New Shares in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Ausdal Financial Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 4,712 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $217,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of EQT. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its position in shares of EQT by 22.7% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,042 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 193 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in EQT by 26.6% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 976 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 205 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 4,731 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares in the last quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB grew its position in shares of EQT by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 1,719 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 236 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Radnor Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of EQT by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 60,948 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,810,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on EQT shares. Scotiabank downgraded EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $55.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, January 17th. Mizuho raised shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. UBS Group boosted their price target on EQT from $54.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on EQT from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One 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. According to data from MarketBeat, EQT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $55.11.

EQT Stock Performance

Shares of EQT stock opened at $53.07 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $51.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $44.84. 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 Co. has a 52 week low of $30.02 and a 52 week high of $56.66. The company has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a PE ratio of 132.68, a P/E/G 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.19%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is currently 157.50%.

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.