Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $35.6133.

EQNR has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Pareto Securities downgraded Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, March 27th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Equinor ASA from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. UBS Group raised Equinor ASA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mirabella Financial Services LLP bought a new position in Equinor ASA during the third quarter valued at about $730,757,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Equinor ASA by 30.2% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 15,759,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,227,000 after buying an additional 3,659,611 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Equinor ASA by 599.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,966,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $547,194,000 after buying an additional 11,112,362 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Equinor ASA by 5.6% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,250,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,600,000 after buying an additional 493,801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,288,512 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,338,000 after purchasing an additional 401,424 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Shares of EQNR stock opened at $39.63 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $116.71 billion, a PE ratio of 18.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.07. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $38.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. Equinor ASA has a twelve month low of $22.26 and a twelve month high of $43.46.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $1.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.47. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 5.30% and a return on equity of 20.01%. The business had revenue of $28.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $28.73 billion. Equities research analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is presently 58.72%.

Equinor ASA Company Profile

Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR) is a Norway-based integrated energy company headquartered in Stavanger. Historically established as Statoil in the 1970s to develop Norway’s petroleum resources, the company changed its name to Equinor in 2018 to reflect a strategic shift toward a broader energy portfolio. Equinor’s operations span the full upstream value chain, including exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas, alongside trading and marketing activities that support its global commercial operations.

In recent years Equinor has pursued a transition strategy that combines continued development of conventional oil and gas resources with growing investments in low?carbon energy.