Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.37

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 20th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.37 per share on Friday, February 27th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 17th.

Equinor ASA has raised its dividend by an average of 0.3%per year over the last three years. Equinor ASA has a dividend payout ratio of 39.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Equinor ASA to earn $3.38 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.21 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 35.8%.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE EQNR traded up $0.63 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $25.47. 1,664,585 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,590,782. The stock has a market cap of $74.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.09, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 0.36. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $23.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. Equinor ASA has a 12-month low of $21.41 and a 12-month high of $28.26.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.37 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $26.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.26 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 14.34% and a net margin of 5.27%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQNR has been the subject of several recent research reports. DZ Bank lowered shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Equinor ASA in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Barclays reissued an “underweight” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Equinor ASA from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and nine have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $22.71.

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.