Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Downgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Thursday morning.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Equinor ASA from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and cut their price objective for the company from $30.50 to $25.80 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Equinor ASA from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of EQNR opened at $26.89 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $27.19 and its 200 day moving average is $27.18. Equinor ASA has a fifty-two week low of $24.44 and a fifty-two week high of $34.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $75.10 billion, a PE ratio of 8.33, a P/E/G ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 20.65%. The company had revenue of $25.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Equinor ASA will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 19th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.84%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in EQNR. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 2,359.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,783,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,507,511 shares during the period. Folketrygdfondet boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 107,959,982 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,415,854,000 after purchasing an additional 917,330 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 39.3% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,045,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $33,105,000 after purchasing an additional 295,162 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 9.1% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,432,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $108,596,000 after purchasing an additional 285,662 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 301.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital Fund Management S.A. now owns 274,743 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,693,000 after purchasing an additional 206,234 shares during the period. 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.