Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 562 Shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its holdings in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 40,821 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 562 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in EQT were worth $1,882,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQT. Creative Planning lifted its position in EQT by 92.6% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 99,480 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,645,000 after buying an additional 47,825 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in EQT by 168.9% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,684 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $99,000 after buying an additional 1,686 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in EQT by 87.2% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 9,012 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $330,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in EQT by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 14,234 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $522,000 after buying an additional 1,748 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Greenleaf Trust lifted its position in EQT by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 19,128 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $701,000 after buying an additional 1,939 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at EQT

In other news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total transaction of $1,351,803.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 201,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,038,086.64. This represents a 13.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

EQT Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQT opened at $50.15 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $49.67 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $41.72. EQT Co. has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $56.66. The firm has a market cap of $29.96 billion, a PE ratio of 125.37, a PEG ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. EQT had a net margin of 4.37% and a return on equity of 4.35%. The firm had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.81 billion. Equities research analysts predict that EQT Co. will post 3.27 earnings per share for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.26%. EQT’s payout ratio is presently 157.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on EQT. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of EQT from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of EQT from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded shares of EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $52.17.

EQT 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.