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

EQT Co. (NYSE:EQT) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock investors acquired 21,512 call options on the company. This is an increase of 37% compared to the average volume of 15,750 call options.

Insider Activity at EQT

In other EQT news, Director Thomas F. Karam sold 30,154 shares of EQT stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.83, for a total value of $1,351,803.82. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 201,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,038,086.64. The trade was a 13.01 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.63% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EQT. Radnor Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in EQT by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Radnor Capital Management LLC now owns 60,948 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,810,000 after purchasing an additional 237 shares during the last quarter. Davis Investment Partners LLC raised its position in shares of EQT by 1.0% in the third quarter. Davis Investment Partners LLC now owns 30,908 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,137,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of EQT by 7.4% during the 3rd quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 6,121 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $224,000 after buying an additional 421 shares during the last quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of EQT by 100.8% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Avengers Inc. now owns 1,004 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP grew its stake in EQT by 184.7% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 891 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 578 shares during the last quarter. 90.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

EQT Stock Up 3.2 %

Shares of NYSE:EQT traded up $1.61 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $52.30. The stock had a trading volume of 7,386,477 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,016,369. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $45.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $38.45. EQT has a 12 month low of $30.02 and a 12 month high of $53.00. The company has a market cap of $31.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.26 and a beta of 1.12.

EQT (NYSE:EQT) last issued 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 company had revenue of $1.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.35 billion. EQT had a net margin of 5.52% and a return on equity of 3.74%. EQT’s quarterly revenue was up 8.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.30 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that EQT will post 1.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on EQT. Mizuho raised shares of EQT from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $48.00 to $57.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised EQT from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $73.00 target price for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on EQT from $45.00 to $56.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of EQT from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of EQT from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, EQT has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.94.

EQT Company 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.