Slate Path Capital LP Takes $123.58 Million Position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Slate Path Capital LP acquired a new stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 2,680,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $123,575,000. EQT comprises about 2.3% of Slate Path Capital LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Slate Path Capital LP owned 0.45% of EQT at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in EQT by 46.3% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,143,774 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $606,059,000 after purchasing an additional 4,162,065 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of EQT during the fourth quarter worth about $113,924,000. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of EQT by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 13,855,244 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $638,867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,433,632 shares during the period. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC increased its position in EQT by 14.7% during the fourth quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 13,829,938 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $637,698,000 after buying an additional 1,774,696 shares during the period. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

EQT Stock Performance

EQT stock opened at $47.60 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $50.65 and its 200 day moving average price is $46.82. 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 company has a market capitalization of $28.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.35. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $56.66.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for 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%. On average, 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 will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th will be given a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.32%. EQT’s payout ratio is 157.50%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQT has been the topic of several research reports. Sanford C. Bernstein raised shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Scotiabank downgraded EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $55.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of EQT from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Mizuho boosted their price target on EQT from $57.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on EQT from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, EQT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $55.56.

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.