Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. Lowers Stock Holdings in EQT Corporation $EQT

Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C. reduced its position in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) by 19.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 617,147 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 150,582 shares during the period. EQT makes up about 0.4% of Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Tortoise Capital Advisors L.L.C.’s holdings in EQT were worth $32,974,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of EQT. Castle Hook Partners LP grew its stake in EQT by 199.5% in the 4th quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 3,990,714 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $184,012,000 after acquiring an additional 2,658,375 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in EQT in the 1st quarter worth approximately $120,252,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in EQT by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 74,039,340 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,955,922,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509,054 shares during the period. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in EQT in the 4th quarter worth approximately $59,627,000. Finally, Ninepoint Partners LP grew its stake in EQT by 200.0% in the 1st quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP now owns 1,500,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $80,145,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,000 shares during the period. 90.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQT has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of EQT from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, June 16th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of EQT in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Mizuho raised shares of EQT to an “outperform” rating and set a $66.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of EQT from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. Finally, Melius initiated coverage on shares of EQT in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $64.00 price objective for the company. Fifteen analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $60.71.

EQT Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of EQT stock opened at $51.9810 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $55.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.13. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. EQT Corporation has a twelve month low of $31.45 and a twelve month high of $61.02. The stock has a market cap of $32.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.59.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 22nd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.52 by ($0.07). EQT had a return on equity of 6.24% and a net margin of 15.87%.The firm had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.08) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that EQT Corporation will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 6th will be issued a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 6th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.2%. EQT’s payout ratio is currently 34.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other EQT news, Director Vicky A. Bailey sold 4,259 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $51.56, for a total value of $219,594.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Sarah Fenton sold 12,438 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.94, for a total transaction of $646,029.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 13,297 shares in the company, valued at $690,646.18. This represents a 48.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.65% of the company’s stock.

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.