Aristides Capital LLC Sells 2,030 Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Aristides Capital LLC decreased its holdings in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 11.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,490 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 2,030 shares during the quarter. Aristides Capital LLC’s holdings in EQT were worth $714,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in EQT. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in EQT by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,095,597 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,359,183,000 after purchasing an additional 7,290,822 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 34.4% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $511,159,000 after buying an additional 3,582,418 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its position in shares of EQT by 386.9% in the fourth quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,347,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $205,830,000 after acquiring an additional 3,454,741 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in EQT during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $113,924,000. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its holdings in EQT by 14.7% during the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,829,938 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $637,698,000 after acquiring an additional 1,774,696 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Stephens raised shares of EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $41.00 to $59.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective 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 report on Wednesday, February 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $49.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a research report on Monday, January 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $55.28.

EQT Stock Performance

EQT stock opened at $46.02 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $51.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $45.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. EQT Co. has a twelve month low of $30.02 and a twelve month high of $56.66. The company has a market capitalization of $27.50 billion, a PE ratio of 115.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 4.35% and a net margin of 4.37%. Research analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current 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. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. EQT’s payout ratio is 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.