Principal Financial Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 1.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 709,517 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 8,803 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned 0.12% of EQT worth $32,716,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQT. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in EQT by 38.7% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 74,153,050 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,716,968,000 after purchasing an additional 20,700,921 shares during the period. Modera Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in EQT during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $562,494,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in EQT by 24.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 37,095,597 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,359,183,000 after purchasing an additional 7,290,822 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in EQT by 34.4% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,997,574 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $511,159,000 after purchasing an additional 3,582,418 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in EQT by 386.9% during the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 4,347,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $205,830,000 after purchasing an additional 3,454,741 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at EQT

In related news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total transaction of $1,351,803.82. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 201,608 shares in the company, valued at $9,038,086.64. The trade was a 13.01 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on EQT shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on EQT from $52.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on EQT from $44.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, EQT presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $52.17.

EQT Price Performance

Shares of EQT stock opened at $50.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $29.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 125.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $49.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $41.58. EQT Co. has a one year low of $30.02 and a one year high of $56.66.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.19. EQT had a return on equity of 4.82% and a net margin of 4.37%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.81 billion. Equities analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 3.27 EPS for the current year.

EQT Announces Dividend

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

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.