Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Upgraded at Danske

Danske upgraded shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR - Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Thursday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

EQNR has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Pareto Securities upgraded Equinor ASA from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Equinor ASA from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Nordea Equity Research raised shares of Equinor ASA from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays raised shares of Equinor ASA from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Equinor ASA from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the company from $25.80 to $30.90 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $29.45.

Equinor ASA Trading Up 4.2 %

Shares of NYSE:EQNR traded up $0.98 on Thursday, hitting $24.53. The company had a trading volume of 8,353,550 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,239,538. Equinor ASA has a 1 year low of $21.85 and a 1 year high of $29.32. The firm has a market capitalization of $68.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.83. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $23.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $24.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.19). Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 8.49%. Equities analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.35 dividend. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 14th. Equinor ASA's dividend payout ratio is 37.62%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Folketrygdfondet raised its holdings in Equinor ASA by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 111,466,079 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,640,631,000 after acquiring an additional 4,300,472 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 3.7% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,751,243 shares of the company's stock valued at $95,019,000 after buying an additional 132,157 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 557,483 shares of the company's stock worth $13,207,000 after acquiring an additional 34,720 shares during the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new position in Equinor ASA during the fourth quarter valued at $9,043,000. Finally, Mediolanum International Funds Ltd bought a new stake in Equinor ASA in the 3rd quarter valued at $6,203,000. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by 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.