Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 14,970 EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Fort Sheridan Advisors LLC acquired a new position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 14,970 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $690,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of EQT. HM Payson & Co. bought a new position in EQT in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Truvestments Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of EQT in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of EQT by 184.7% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 891 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 578 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. purchased a new stake in EQT in the third quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Financial Avengers Inc. grew its stake in EQT by 100.8% in the third quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. now owns 1,004 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 504 shares during the period. 90.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on EQT. Scotiabank cut shares of EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $55.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EQT to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 8th. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 target price for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “reduce” rating on shares of EQT in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $52.39.

Insider Buying and Selling at EQT

In related news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total value of $1,351,803.82. Following the transaction, the director now owns 201,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,038,086.64. This trade represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Performance

Shares of EQT stock opened at $46.47 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $50.06 and a 200-day moving average price of $42.21. EQT Co. has a 52 week low of $30.02 and a 52 week high of $56.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.76 billion, a PE ratio of 116.17, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.08.

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

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be issued a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.36%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. EQT’s dividend 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.