Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Receives Consensus Rating of “Reduce” from Brokerages

Shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” by the eight research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $28.25.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group raised Equinor ASA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Equinor ASA from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

Equinor ASA stock opened at $27.04 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $27.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a current ratio of 1.53. The stock has a market cap of $79.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.37, a PEG ratio of 4.02 and a beta of 0.84. Equinor ASA has a fifty-two week low of $24.44 and a fifty-two week high of $34.73.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.65% and a net margin of 9.11%. The business had revenue of $25.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.93 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Equinor ASA will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 52.7% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 69,718 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,991,000 after purchasing an additional 24,052 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 9.2% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 13,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,167 shares in the last quarter. Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 2nd quarter worth $1,085,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 16,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $480,000 after purchasing an additional 440 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 39.1% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 54,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,568,000 after purchasing an additional 15,419 shares in the last quarter. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.