EQT Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:EQT)

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 11,978 call options on the company. This is an increase of 41% compared to the average volume of 8,521 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in EQT by 10.7% during the third quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 177,904 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $6,518,000 after buying an additional 17,233 shares in the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund boosted its position in shares of EQT by 23.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund now owns 17,588 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $644,000 after purchasing an additional 3,345 shares in the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems grew its stake in shares of EQT by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems now owns 41,383 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,516,000 after purchasing an additional 8,106 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of EQT by 29.0% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 196,443 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $7,198,000 after purchasing an additional 44,130 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC lifted its stake in EQT by 4.4% during the third quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 19,440 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $712,000 after purchasing an additional 821 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on EQT. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of EQT from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. Citigroup upgraded EQT from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on EQT from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Finally, Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of EQT from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, EQT has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.83.

EQT Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EQT opened at $40.20 on Thursday. EQT has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $42.44. The company has a current ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a market cap of $17.75 billion, a PE ratio of 47.86 and a beta of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.64.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.35 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 3.74% and a net margin of 5.52%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.30 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that EQT will post 1.42 EPS for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be paid a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.57%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 6th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

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.