Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) shares gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $22.37, but opened at $23.16. Equinor ASA shares last traded at $23.25, with a volume of 613,437 shares changing hands.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on EQNR. Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Equinor ASA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. DZ Bank raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $25.80 to $30.90 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.45.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market cap of $64.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.45, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $23.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.32.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.19). Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 8.49%. Equities research analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 37.30%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,288 shares of the company’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 10.8% in the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 5,195 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares during the last quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Gallacher Capital Management LLC now owns 19,581 shares of the company’s stock valued at $464,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 6,173 shares of the company’s stock valued at $146,000 after purchasing an additional 593 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GeoWealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 254.5% in the 4th quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 1,372 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 985 shares during the last quarter. 5.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Equinor ASA

Equinor ASA, an energy company, engages in the exploration, production, transportation, refining, and marketing of petroleum and other forms of energy in Norway and internationally. It operates through Exploration & Production Norway; Exploration & Production International; Exploration & Production USA; Marketing, Midstream & Processing; Renewables; and Other segments.