Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Increases Position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 1,622.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,599 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,390 shares during the quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in EQT were worth $139,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of EQT. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of EQT by 12.7% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 31,346 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,541 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of EQT during the first quarter worth $96,000. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can boosted its position in shares of EQT by 8.1% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 166,448 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $5,891,000 after acquiring an additional 12,466 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. bought a new position in shares of EQT during the first quarter worth $539,000. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL bought a new position in shares of EQT during the first quarter worth $329,000. 90.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on EQT. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of EQT from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $27.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on shares of EQT from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of EQT in a research report on Friday. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of EQT from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $48.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $46.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.38.

EQT Trading Up 1.2 %

EQT stock opened at $36.65 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $16.14 billion, a PE ratio of 8.62 and a beta of 1.12. EQT Co. has a 12 month low of $30.84 and a 12 month high of $45.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $35.92 and its 200 day moving average is $38.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.58 billion. EQT had a net margin of 25.12% and a return on equity of 7.12%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.42 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that EQT Co. will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be paid a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is presently 14.82%.

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.