Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Sells 1,075 Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. reduced its stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 8.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 11,281 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 1,075 shares during the period. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc.’s holdings in EQT were worth $436,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in EQT by 8.6% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,899,640 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,822,027,000 after purchasing an additional 3,539,661 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of EQT by 61.9% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,687,594 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $798,923,000 after buying an additional 7,526,875 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of EQT by 6.5% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 18,037,923 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $731,979,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098,211 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in EQT by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,657,338 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $148,415,000 after acquiring an additional 300,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in EQT by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,345,714 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $135,769,000 after acquiring an additional 77,282 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQT has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on EQT from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Scotiabank raised EQT from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $40.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of EQT from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $48.00 to $37.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of EQT to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 12th. Finally, Stephens raised their target price on shares of EQT from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $44.56.

EQT Stock Performance

NYSE:EQT opened at $40.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.05 and a beta of 1.12. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.84 and a 12-month high of $45.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.58 billion. EQT had a net margin of 10.96% and a return on equity of 4.57%. The company’s revenue was down 28.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.70 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that EQT Co. will post 1.01 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be issued a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.57%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.65%.

EQT 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.