Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Shares Gap Up to $27.10

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $27.10, but opened at $28.22. Equinor ASA shares last traded at $27.68, with a volume of 6,236,258 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on EQNR shares. StockNews.com raised Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Equinor ASA in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “hold” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $26.40 to $28.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, DZ Bank cut Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Equinor ASA presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.25.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $86.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.58, a PEG ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.71. The company has a 50 day moving average of $26.62 and a 200 day moving average of $29.53.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.44). The business had revenue of $29.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $27.35 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 19.78% and a net margin of 9.30%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 3.33 EPS for the current year.

Equinor ASA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 30.34%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Folketrygdfondet lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 107,959,982 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,415,854,000 after buying an additional 917,330 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,284,862 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,241,000 after buying an additional 444,435 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 9.1% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,432,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,596,000 after buying an additional 285,662 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,774,455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,974,000 after purchasing an additional 134,688 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,438,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,183,000 after purchasing an additional 18,694 shares during the last quarter. 5.51% of the stock is 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.