Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Buy”

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

EQNR has been the subject of several other research reports. Zacks Research cut Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised Equinor ASA from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. Weiss Ratings raised Equinor ASA from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 23rd. DZ Bank upgraded Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of Equinor ASA from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $39.20.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EQNR opened at $42.84 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a market cap of $102.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.04. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $36.81 and its two-hundred day moving average is $36.14. Equinor ASA has a 52-week low of $22.26 and a 52-week high of $43.46.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 21st. The company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.06). Equinor ASA had a net margin of 7.92% and a return on equity of 23.60%. The company had revenue of $34.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $34.03 billion. As a group, analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 16th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, November 16th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.6%. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is 34.88%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Equinor ASA by 599.3% during the 1st 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 during the period. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in Equinor ASA by 30.2% in the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 15,759,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $384,227,000 after buying an additional 3,659,611 shares during the last quarter. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in Equinor ASA during the fourth quarter worth $16,217,000. Voloridge Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Equinor ASA by 143.2% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 880,931 shares of the company’s stock worth $20,816,000 after buying an additional 518,646 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 493,801 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

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.