Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 709,517 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 8,803 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in EQT were worth $32,716,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in EQT. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 38.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 74,153,050 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,716,968,000 after buying an additional 20,700,921 shares during the period. Modera Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of EQT in the 3rd quarter worth $562,494,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of EQT by 24.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 7,290,822 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of EQT by 34.4% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $511,159,000 after acquiring an additional 3,582,418 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its position in shares of EQT by 386.9% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,347,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $205,830,000 after acquiring an additional 3,454,741 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at EQT

In other news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total value of $1,351,803.82. Following the sale, the director now owns 201,608 shares in the company, valued at $9,038,086.64. This represents a 13.01 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.63% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Down 4.6 %

EQT stock opened at $50.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.51. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.57 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.58. The company has a market cap of $29.92 billion, a PE ratio of 125.37, a PEG ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.08. EQT Co. has a fifty-two week low of $30.02 and a fifty-two week high of $56.66.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.81 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 4.82% and a net margin of 4.37%. Equities analysts anticipate that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.26%. EQT’s payout ratio is presently 157.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on EQT from $34.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group boosted their price target on EQT from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on EQT from $59.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, EQT currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.17.

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.