Short Interest in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) Drops By 5.8%

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) was the target of a large drop in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 19,300,000 shares, a drop of 5.8% from the August 31st total of 20,480,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,050,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

EQT Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE:EQT opened at $36.26 on Wednesday. EQT has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $45.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.48. The firm has a market cap of $16.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.28 and a beta of 1.06.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.08) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.20) by $0.12. EQT had a net margin of 12.45% and a return on equity of 4.52%. The company had revenue of $952.51 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.06 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.17) EPS. EQT’s revenue was down 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that EQT will post 1.37 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Sunday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, August 7th were paid a dividend of $0.1575 per share. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, August 7th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.65%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in EQT by 22.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 64,877,405 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,405,007,000 after buying an additional 11,993,729 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of EQT by 8.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,865,664 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,885,590,000 after acquiring an additional 3,942,802 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in EQT by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 20,348,475 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $752,487,000 after purchasing an additional 464,781 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in EQT by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 20,320,219 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $785,580,000 after purchasing an additional 632,625 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors boosted its position in EQT by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,425,711 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $673,678,000 after purchasing an additional 265,297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EQT has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their price target on EQT from $38.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of EQT in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. Mizuho cut their price target on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, September 16th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of EQT to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on shares of EQT in a report on Friday, August 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $42.29.

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.