EQT (NYSE:EQT) Stock Sees Unusually High Put Option Buying

EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 66,691 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 368% compared to the typical daily volume of 14,242 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Toby Rice sold 175,328 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $55.03, for a total transaction of $9,648,299.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 2,157,865 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $118,747,310.95. This represents a 7.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.72% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On EQT

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in EQT by 46.4% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 3,673 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $178,000 after purchasing an additional 1,164 shares during the period. First Financial Bank Trust Division lifted its position in shares of EQT by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division now owns 65,263 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,169,000 after buying an additional 2,573 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of EQT by 49.4% during the 3rd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 33,973 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,650,000 after acquiring an additional 11,230 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in EQT by 156.2% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 93,774 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $4,986,000 after acquiring an additional 57,179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. lifted its holdings in EQT by 24.4% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 5,194 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $276,000 after purchasing an additional 1,020 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on EQT. Stifel Nicolaus assumed coverage on EQT in a research note on Wednesday, September 9th. They set a “buy” rating and a $66.00 target price on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on EQT from $75.00 to $73.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut EQT from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Barclays decreased their price objective on EQT from $70.00 to $68.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised shares of EQT to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.09.

EQT Price Performance

EQT opened at $50.09 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $55.09. EQT has a 52-week low of $47.94 and a 52-week high of $68.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 0.66.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 28.44% and a return on equity of 9.31%. 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 previous year, the company earned $0.45 earnings per share. EQT’s quarterly revenue was down 29.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that EQT will post 3.9 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.1650 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 5th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. EQT’s payout ratio is presently 15.31%.

About EQT

EQT Corporation is a natural gas producer headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, natural gas liquids, and crude oil, with its operations concentrated in the Appalachian Basin, particularly the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.

In addition to its upstream production activities, EQT has interests in the midstream infrastructure used to gather, process, transport, and store natural gas. These assets support the movement of production from well sites to regional and interstate markets.