Empowered Funds LLC Buys 367,523 Shares of EQT Corporation $EQT

Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) by 125.6% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 660,166 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 367,523 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in EQT were worth $35,101,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Greykasell Wealth Strategies Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of EQT in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in EQT in the second quarter valued at about $26,000. Wedbush Fund Advisers LLC grew its stake in EQT by 251.8% during the second quarter. Wedbush Fund Advisers LLC now owns 577 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of EQT during the second quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of EQT in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $49,000. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on EQT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on EQT from $72.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 23rd. Zacks Research lowered EQT from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. UBS Group cut their price target on EQT from $74.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of EQT from $68.00 to $67.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, August 19th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of EQT from $74.00 to $65.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $68.10.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Toby Z. Rice sold 175,328 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.03, for a total value of $9,648,299.84. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,157,865 shares in the company, valued at $118,747,310.95. This represents a 7.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 274,042 shares of company stock valued at $15,005,076 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.72% of the company’s stock.

EQT Price Performance

EQT stock opened at $54.85 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.67, a current ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The stock has a market cap of $34.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.73 and a beta of 0.58. EQT Corporation has a 12-month low of $47.94 and a 12-month high of $68.24.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The oil and gas producer reported $0.39 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.41 by ($0.02). EQT had a return on equity of 9.31% and a net margin of 28.44%.The firm had revenue of $1.68 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.76 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 29.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that EQT Corporation will post 3.97 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, August 5th. EQT’s payout ratio is 15.31%.

About EQT

EQT Corporation (NYSE: EQT) is a U.S.-based energy company focused on the exploration, development and production of natural gas. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the company concentrates its upstream operations in the Appalachian Basin, producing from major shale formations including the Marcellus and Utica. EQT’s primary product is natural gas, with production activities supported by associated liquids and conventional gas assets where applicable.

In addition to drilling and well development, EQT operates and coordinates the infrastructure and commercial activities necessary to bring gas to market.