EQT Co. (EQT) to Distribute Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 on June 1st

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 17th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be given a dividend of 0.1575 per share by the oil and gas producer on Saturday, June 1st. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%.

EQT has increased its dividend payment by an average of 172.6% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 2 consecutive years. EQT has a payout ratio of 15.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect EQT to earn $4.51 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.63 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 14.0%.

EQT Price Performance

EQT opened at $36.22 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. EQT has a 1 year low of $30.84 and a 1 year high of $45.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.95 billion, a PE ratio of 8.52 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.01. EQT had a net margin of 25.12% and a return on equity of 7.12%. The business had revenue of $1.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.42 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that EQT will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of EQT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FIL Ltd increased its stake in shares of EQT by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,833,524 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $70,884,000 after buying an additional 7,386 shares during the last quarter. Hobbs Group Advisors LLC bought a new stake in EQT during the fourth quarter valued at $114,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in EQT by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 157,906 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $6,105,000 after purchasing an additional 4,264 shares during the last quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in EQT by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 72,134 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in EQT by 52.8% during the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,265,260 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $87,575,000 after purchasing an additional 782,619 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on EQT. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of EQT from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. StockNews.com raised shares of EQT to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of EQT from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target (down from $39.00) on shares of EQT in a research report on Wednesday, March 20th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.80.

EQT Company 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.