BMO Capital Markets Boosts EQT (NYSE:EQT) Price Target to $40.00

EQT (NYSE:EQT) had its price objective upped by BMO Capital Markets from $39.00 to $40.00 in a research note released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of EQT to a sell rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded EQT from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and upped their price target for the stock from $40.00 to $42.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 14th. Citigroup upgraded EQT from a neutral rating to a buy rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of EQT from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a sector outperform rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a research report on Friday, September 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $42.18.

EQT Price Performance

EQT stock opened at $36.94 on Friday. EQT has a 52-week low of $30.02 and a 52-week high of $45.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market cap of $16.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.77 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a fifty day moving average of $33.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.55.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.08) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.12. EQT had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 4.52%. The company had revenue of $952.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.17) earnings per share. EQT’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that EQT will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were issued a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.71%. EQT’s payout ratio is 45.65%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EQT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in EQT by 22.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 64,877,405 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,405,007,000 after acquiring an additional 11,993,729 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of EQT by 8.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,865,664 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,885,590,000 after purchasing an additional 3,942,802 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 2.3% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,348,475 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $752,487,000 after purchasing an additional 464,781 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,320,219 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $785,580,000 after purchasing an additional 632,625 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC grew its position in EQT by 2.9% in the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 9,084,686 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $335,952,000 after buying an additional 253,186 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

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.