National Bank of Canada FI Grows Stock Holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 15.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 279,249 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 38,160 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in EQT were worth $12,876,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in EQT in the fourth quarter worth $305,000. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new position in EQT during the 4th quarter worth $208,000. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG increased its position in EQT by 27.4% during the 4th quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG now owns 12,446 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $574,000 after buying an additional 2,675 shares in the last quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC raised its stake in EQT by 135.3% in the fourth quarter. Cannell & Spears LLC now owns 1,349,242 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $62,214,000 after buying an additional 775,722 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Financial LLC acquired a new stake in EQT in the fourth quarter worth about $527,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Price Performance

EQT stock opened at $46.02 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 115.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.12. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $51.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $45.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.70. EQT Co. has a 1 year low of $30.02 and a 1 year high of $56.66.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released 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 analysts’ expectations 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 anticipate that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th were paid a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 18th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is presently 157.50%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price 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. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a report on Monday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Scotiabank lowered EQT from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $55.00 to $54.00 in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $67.00 target price (up previously from $63.00) on shares of EQT in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, EQT has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $55.28.

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.