Banco Santander S.A. Makes New $527,000 Investment in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT)

Banco Santander S.A. bought a new stake in EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 14,386 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock, valued at approximately $527,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of EQT. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new stake in EQT during the first quarter worth $2,274,000. Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in EQT by 35.3% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 1,677,261 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $61,455,000 after purchasing an additional 437,602 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in EQT during the first quarter worth $4,073,000. Virtu Financial LLC boosted its position in shares of EQT by 184.3% during the first quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 53,138 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,970,000 after buying an additional 34,446 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in shares of EQT by 71.7% in the third quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 215,158 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $7,883,000 after buying an additional 89,866 shares in the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on EQT shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of EQT in a report on Friday, September 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of EQT from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 26th. Stephens raised their price target on shares of EQT from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on EQT from $39.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded EQT from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.83.

EQT Price Performance

Shares of EQT opened at $45.92 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.51 and a quick ratio of 0.51. EQT Co. has a 1-year low of $30.02 and a 1-year high of $48.02. The stock has a market cap of $27.40 billion, a PE ratio of 54.67 and a beta of 1.06. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $38.20 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.98.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.35 billion. EQT had a return on equity of 3.74% and a net margin of 5.52%. The business’s revenue was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that EQT Co. will post 1.35 EPS for the current year.

EQT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 6th will be given a dividend of $0.1575 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 6th. This represents a $0.63 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.37%. EQT’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 75.00%.

EQT 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.