Barclays Upgrades Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) to “Hold”

Barclays upgraded shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) to a hold rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on EQNR. Morgan Stanley downgraded Equinor ASA from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $30.50 to $25.80 in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen dropped their target price on Equinor ASA from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. StockNews.com lowered Equinor ASA from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group raised Equinor ASA from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Shares of EQNR stock opened at $27.12 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $26.12 and its 200 day moving average is $27.13. Equinor ASA has a 1-year low of $24.02 and a 1-year high of $34.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.43. The company has a market cap of $79.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.40, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.83.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $25.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.93 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 20.65%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. Research analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 28th. Investors of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. This represents a yield of 4.1%. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.34%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Atwood & Palmer Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Equinor ASA during the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Equinor ASA by 27.1% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank purchased a new position in shares of Equinor ASA during the 2nd quarter valued at about $51,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 44.8% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,142 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,000 after buying an additional 663 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

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.