Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Lifted to Strong Sell at Citigroup

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

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Equinor ASA from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Equinor ASA from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $30.50 to $25.80 in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. TD Cowen cut their price target on shares of Equinor ASA from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of Equinor ASA to a hold rating in a report on Wednesday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Shares of EQNR opened at $26.75 on Wednesday. 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’s fifty day moving average price is $26.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.12. Equinor ASA has a 1-year low of $24.02 and a 1-year high of $34.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.77 billion, a PE ratio of 8.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.83.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 the consensus estimate of $25.93 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.3 EPS for the current year.

Equinor ASA Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQNR. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in Equinor ASA during the second quarter worth about $205,000. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 862,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,635,000 after purchasing an additional 11,500 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 52.7% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 69,718 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,991,000 after purchasing an additional 24,052 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 9.2% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 13,900 shares of the company’s stock valued at $397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,085,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.