Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Trims Stock Holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System trimmed its holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 6.6% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,465 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 2,214 shares during the period. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in EQT were worth $1,451,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Boston Partners raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 6,356,476 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $293,213,000 after buying an additional 429,630 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 46.0% in 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 period. Horizon Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 17.3% in the fourth quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 27,472 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,267,000 after buying an additional 4,060 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans grew its stake in EQT by 50.2% in the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 45,867 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,096,000 after purchasing an additional 15,327 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Axxcess Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in EQT in the fourth quarter worth approximately $287,000. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on EQT shares. Stephens raised EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $41.00 to $59.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Mizuho raised EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $57.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on EQT from $53.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on EQT from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.50.

EQT Stock Down 1.6 %

EQT stock opened at $52.89 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 132.23, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12. EQT Co. has a 1-year low of $30.02 and a 1-year high of $56.66. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $51.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $44.20.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 4.35% and a net margin of 4.37%. Equities research analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

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

EQT 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.