Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Upgraded at Citigroup

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

Other research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Equinor ASA from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and cut their target price for the company from $30.50 to $25.80 in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group raised shares of Equinor ASA from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Equinor ASA from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen cut their target price 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 analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Trading Up 1.4 %

Equinor ASA stock opened at $27.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $79.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.40, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.43. Equinor ASA has a 1 year low of $24.02 and a 1 year high of $34.73. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $26.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.13.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $25.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $25.93 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 20.65%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.74 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 43.34%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Clearbridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA during the second quarter valued at $205,000. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 1.4% during the second quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 862,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,635,000 after purchasing an additional 11,500 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 52.7% during 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 during the period. Truist Financial Corp boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 9.2% during 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 during the period. Finally, Chase Investment Counsel Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA during the second quarter valued at $1,085,000. 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.