Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of EQT Put Options (NYSE:EQT)

EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 23,337 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 39% compared to the average volume of 16,816 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on EQT shares. UBS Group upgraded EQT from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $64.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on EQT from $62.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays initiated coverage on EQT in a report on Monday. They set an "overweight" rating and a $65.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $62.00 price target (up from $57.00) on shares of EQT in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on EQT from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $59.95.

Institutional Trading of EQT

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EQT. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 27.5% during the fourth quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 7,219 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $333,000 after purchasing an additional 1,558 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 287.2% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 6,737 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,997 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 47.4% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 41,111 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $1,896,000 after purchasing an additional 13,212 shares during the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 7,460 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961 shares during the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in shares of EQT by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 26,748 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $1,233,000 after purchasing an additional 1,835 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.81% of the company's stock.

EQT Stock Performance

EQT stock traded down $0.37 during trading on Thursday, reaching $54.51. 8,403,729 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,019,606. The company has a quick ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. EQT has a 1-year low of $30.02 and a 1-year high of $61.02. The company's fifty day moving average price is $55.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $52.24. The firm has a market cap of $32.64 billion, a PE ratio of 95.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 0.65.

EQT (NYSE:EQT - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The oil and gas producer reported $1.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.20. EQT had a return on equity of 5.52% and a net margin of 6.59%. The company had revenue of $2.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.16 billion. On average, research analysts expect that EQT will post 3.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th were issued a $0.1575 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, May 7th. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.16%. EQT's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 110.53%.

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.