Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Invests $286,000 in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT)

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. bought a new stake in EQT Corporation (NYSE:EQT - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 5,360 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock, valued at approximately $286,000.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas acquired a new stake in EQT in the 4th quarter worth about $244,000. Aviva PLC acquired a new stake in EQT in the 4th quarter worth about $14,719,000. Flagship Harbor Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in EQT in the 1st quarter worth about $226,000. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its stake in EQT by 101.8% in the 1st quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 9,039 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $483,000 after buying an additional 4,559 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its stake in EQT by 15.4% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,288,322 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $68,835,000 after buying an additional 172,249 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.81% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on EQT shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on EQT from $58.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on EQT from $59.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, June 16th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on EQT from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded EQT from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Monday, April 7th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded EQT from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $64.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $59.95.

EQT Stock Down 0.2%

EQT stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $54.74. 8,462,357 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,009,497. The company has a current ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.57 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. EQT Corporation has a 12-month low of $30.02 and a 12-month high of $61.02. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $55.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $52.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 96.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.35 and a beta of 0.65.

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

EQT Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 7th were given 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 1.15%. EQT's payout ratio 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.