Chesapeake Capital Corp IL Buys Shares of 9,895 EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Chesapeake Capital Corp IL bought a new position in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 9,895 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $456,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners increased its position in EQT by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,356,476 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $293,213,000 after acquiring an additional 429,630 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in EQT by 46.0% during the fourth quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 18,540 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $855,000 after buying an additional 5,843 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC lifted its holdings in EQT by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 27,472 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,267,000 after buying an additional 4,060 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in EQT by 50.2% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 45,867 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,096,000 after acquiring an additional 15,327 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in EQT during the fourth quarter worth approximately $287,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently issued reports on EQT shares. Mizuho raised shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of EQT from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Stephens raised shares of EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $59.00 in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $54.22.

EQT Stock Performance

EQT stock opened at $52.55 on Wednesday. EQT Co. has a 1-year low of $30.02 and a 1-year high of $56.66. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $50.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.85. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $31.40 billion, a PE ratio of 131.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. As a group, analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 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.