Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on EQNR. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. DZ Bank raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 6th. UBS Group raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.40 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.20.

Equinor ASA Stock Down 2.5%

EQNR stock opened at $37.84 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.36, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 0.07. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.16 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. Equinor ASA has a 52 week low of $22.26 and a 52 week high of $43.46.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $28.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $28.73 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 5.30% and a return on equity of 20.01%. Equities analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 5.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 58.72%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in Equinor ASA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $730,757,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 30.2% in 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. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 599.3% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 12,966,671 shares of the company’s stock valued at $547,194,000 after purchasing an additional 11,112,362 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 5.6% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,250,933 shares of the company’s stock valued at $218,600,000 after purchasing an additional 493,801 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 4,288,512 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,338,000 after purchasing an additional 401,424 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

About Equinor ASA

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.