Cannell & Spears LLC Purchases 775,722 Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Cannell & Spears LLC boosted its position in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 135.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,349,242 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 775,722 shares during the quarter. EQT accounts for 1.3% of Cannell & Spears LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Cannell & Spears LLC’s holdings in EQT were worth $62,214,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EQT has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group raised 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. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $67.00 price objective (up from $63.00) on shares of EQT in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded EQT from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 25th. 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. According to MarketBeat, EQT currently 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 Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $51.38 and a 200-day moving average of $45.02. 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 1-year low of $30.02 and a 1-year high of $56.66. The company has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a PE ratio of 132.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its earnings results 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. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. EQT had a net margin of 4.37% and a return on equity of 4.35%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

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

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.