Court Grants Final Approval of $167.5M Cash Settlement in EQT Securities Class Action

PITTSBURGH, Nov. 04, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, a federal judge in Pennsylvania granted final approval of a $167.5 million cash settlement between investors and defendant EQT Corporation, a major producer of natural gas in the Appalachian Basin. The Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Annuity Fund, the Eastern Atlantic States Carpenters Pension Fund, the Government of Guam Retirement Fund, and Cambridge Retirement System served as lead plaintiffs in the case. The settlement resolves investor allegations that EQT made false and/or misleading statements and omissions regarding the synergies that would arise from its $6.7 billion merger with rival gas producer Rice Energy.

This is the largest securities class action recovery ever in the history of the Western District of Pennsylvania and the 14th largest in the history of the Third Circuit.

“We are pleased that this hard-fought litigation has reached settlement,” said S. Douglas Bunch, a partner at Cohen Milstein, which is court-appointed co-lead counsel in this matter. “It is a favorable result for investors as it provides an immediate cash recovery and resolves further litigation.”

The litigation stems from EQT’s 2017 merger with Rice Energy. As alleged in the amended complaint, senior executives at EQT made materially false and/or misleading statements and omissions regarding EQT’s drilling performance and capability, as well as the purported benefits of EQT’s acquisition of competing oil and gas company Rice Energy.

The alleged false and misleading statements concerned, among other things, the combined company’s ability to drill 1,200 lateral wells at an average lateral length of 12,000 feet and to realize $2.5 billion in synergies. The amended complaint asserted that the defendants’ alleged misrepresentations and omissions caused investors to purchase EQT common stock at artificially inflated prices and/or to approve EQT’s proposed acquisition, and to suffer damages when the truth was revealed.

EQT’s financial results for the third quarter of 2018 revealed that the merger had not only failed to achieve the represented benefits but also created inefficiencies, causing capital expenditures to skyrocket. On this news, EQT shares fell 13%, dropping from a close of $40.46 per share on October 24, 2018 to $35.34 on October 25, 2018—a single-day erasure of nearly $700 million in shareholder value.

Over the next several days, the price of EQT shares fell to as low as $31.00 per share—less than half what the company was worth when the acquisition closed in November 2017.

In arriving at this settlement, lead counsel for the investors, Cohen Milstein and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP, reviewed over 7 million pages of documents obtained from Defendants and third parties, participated in more than 50 depositions, and retained and worked with experts on the subjects of damages, loss causation, natural gas drilling, and corporate due diligence. Not only was a class certified, but the Third Circuit denied Defendants’ request to review the lower court’s order granting class certification, solidifying an important litigation milestone for investors.

Cohen Milstein’s team consisted of Steven J. Toll, Daniel S. Sommers, S. Douglas Bunch, Christina D. Saler, Benjamin F. Jackson, and Alexandra Gray. The case is styled: In re EQT Corporation Securities Litigation, Case No. 2:19-cv-00754-RJC, United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

About Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC
Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, a premier U.S. plaintiffs’ law firm, with over 100 attorneys across eight offices, champions the causes of real people – workers, consumers, small business owners, investors, and whistleblowers – working to deliver corporate reforms and fair markets for the common good. For more information visit https://www.cohenmilstein.com

Contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com

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