Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the fifteen ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $29.45.

EQNR has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Nordea Equity Research upgraded Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Equinor ASA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $25.80 to $30.90 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays upgraded Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Pareto Securities upgraded Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

NYSE EQNR opened at $23.11 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $64.53 billion, a PE ratio of 7.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.48. The business’s fifty day moving average is $23.91 and its 200 day moving average is $24.75. Equinor ASA has a fifty-two week low of $21.85 and a fifty-two week high of $29.32.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.82 by ($0.19). Equinor ASA had a net margin of 8.49% and a return on equity of 20.33%. Sell-side analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.06%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is currently 37.30%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Folketrygdfondet grew its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 111,466,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,640,631,000 after buying an additional 4,300,472 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 3,159.0% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,649,389 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,764,000 after buying an additional 2,568,095 shares during the period. Trexquant Investment LP lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 975.0% during the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 842,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,961,000 after buying an additional 764,204 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 10.7% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,151,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,340,000 after buying an additional 399,861 shares during the period. Finally, ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new stake in Equinor ASA during the fourth quarter worth $9,043,000. 5.51% of the stock is owned by 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.