Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Has $4.92 Million Position in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) by 498.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 127,300 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 106,024 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in EQT were worth $4,921,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of EQT. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of EQT by 8.6% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,899,640 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,822,027,000 after buying an additional 3,539,661 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of EQT by 61.9% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 19,687,594 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $798,923,000 after buying an additional 7,526,875 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of EQT by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 18,037,923 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $731,979,000 after buying an additional 1,098,211 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of EQT by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,657,338 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $148,415,000 after buying an additional 300,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of EQT by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,345,714 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $135,769,000 after buying an additional 77,282 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.81% of the company’s stock.

EQT Stock Up 3.8 %

Shares of NYSE EQT opened at $39.42 on Thursday. EQT Co. has a one year low of $30.84 and a one year high of $45.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $17.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.57 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The oil and gas producer reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.17. EQT had a net margin of 10.96% and a return on equity of 4.70%. The business had revenue of $1.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.58 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.70 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 28.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that EQT Co. will post 0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 8th will be issued a $0.1575 dividend. This represents a $0.63 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 7th. EQT’s dividend payout ratio is 45.65%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price objective on EQT from $48.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Stephens upped their price target on EQT from $46.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen started coverage on EQT in a research report on Friday, April 19th. They set a “hold” rating and a $43.00 price target on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein upgraded EQT from an “underperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $27.00 to $34.00 in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded EQT to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $44.06.

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.