Investors Purchase Large Volume of EQT Call Options (NYSE:EQT)

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders purchased 15,182 call options on the company. This is an increase of 120% compared to the average daily volume of 6,901 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on EQT. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EQT to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $27.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded EQT from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $37.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on EQT in a research note on Friday, April 19th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Scotiabank upped their target price on EQT from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.50.

Insider Transactions at EQT

In related news, EVP William E. Jordan sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.72, for a total value of $1,425,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 456,837 shares in the company, valued at $18,602,402.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, EVP William E. Jordan sold 35,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.72, for a total value of $1,425,200.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 456,837 shares in the company, valued at $18,602,402.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Lesley Evancho sold 46,884 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.29, for a total transaction of $1,935,840.36. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 160,884 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,642,900.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of EQT

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 22.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 64,877,405 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,405,007,000 after acquiring an additional 11,993,729 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of EQT by 27.9% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 19,883,694 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $737,089,000 after acquiring an additional 4,339,407 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of EQT by 8.4% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,865,664 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,885,590,000 after acquiring an additional 3,942,802 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners grew its holdings in EQT by 4,680.4% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,868,030 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $110,854,000 after acquiring an additional 2,808,034 shares during the period. Finally, Third Point LLC acquired a new stake in EQT during the 4th quarter worth $75,387,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:EQT traded up $0.59 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $30.80. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,189,820 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,162,318. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $37.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $37.14. EQT has a fifty-two week low of $30.02 and a fifty-two week high of $45.23. The company has a market capitalization of $13.60 billion, a PE ratio of 22.48 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.73.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.08) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.12. EQT had a return on equity of 4.52% and a net margin of 12.45%. The business had revenue of $952.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.17) EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that EQT will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th will be given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 7th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.05%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.65%.

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.