Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Hits New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $34.22 and last traded at $34.1710, with a volume of 1383704 shares. The stock had previously closed at $33.53.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently weighed in on EQNR shares. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Equinor ASA from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America lowered shares of Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Pareto Securities raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Equinor ASA from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Equinor ASA from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and eight have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $24.71.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $100.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.35. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $27.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $25.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.31 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 15.23% and a net margin of 4.74%. On average, analysts expect that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 27th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This is an increase from Equinor ASA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.6%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 67.37%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQNR. Mirabella Financial Services LLP bought a new position in shares of Equinor ASA in the third quarter valued at approximately $730,757,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 15,759,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $384,227,000 after purchasing an additional 3,659,611 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 5.6% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,250,933 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,600,000 after purchasing an additional 493,801 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,288,512 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,338,000 after buying an additional 401,424 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Equinor ASA by 0.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,852,448 shares of the company’s stock valued at $93,923,000 after buying an additional 25,250 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Equinor ASA Company Profile

Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR) is a Norway-based integrated energy company headquartered in Stavanger. Historically established as Statoil in the 1970s to develop Norway’s petroleum resources, the company changed its name to Equinor in 2018 to reflect a strategic shift toward a broader energy portfolio. Equinor’s operations span the full upstream value chain, including exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas, alongside trading and marketing activities that support its global commercial operations.

In recent years Equinor has pursued a transition strategy that combines continued development of conventional oil and gas resources with growing investments in low‑carbon energy.