Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a report published on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have $25.80 price objective on the stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on EQNR. TD Cowen reduced their price target 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. Citigroup upgraded shares of Equinor ASA to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group upgraded Equinor ASA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Equinor ASA to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

NYSE EQNR opened at $24.19 on Monday. Equinor ASA has a 52-week low of $24.02 and a 52-week high of $34.73. The company has a fifty day moving average of $25.99 and a 200-day moving average of $27.04. The company has a market capitalization of $71.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.83. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.93 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.65% and a net margin of 9.11%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Cuts Dividend

The firm 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 was Monday, August 19th. This represents a dividend yield of 4.1%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is presently 43.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of EQNR. Atwood & Palmer Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Equinor ASA in the second quarter worth $32,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 27.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,712 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC increased its position in Equinor ASA by 363.5% during the 3rd quarter. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC now owns 1,928 shares of the company’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 1,512 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank bought a new position in Equinor ASA in the 2nd quarter worth $51,000. Institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Equinor ASA Company Profile

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.