Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Raised to "Strong-Buy" at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR - Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note published on Friday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley raised Equinor ASA from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $25.80 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group raised Equinor ASA from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Citigroup raised Equinor ASA to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Redburn Atlantic upgraded Equinor ASA from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Barclays upgraded Equinor ASA from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Shares of EQNR traded down $0.19 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $24.18. The stock had a trading volume of 1,286,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,408,310. Equinor ASA has a 52 week low of $22.15 and a 52 week high of $32.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $24.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.25. The company has a market capitalization of $67.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.48, a P/E/G ratio of 5.30 and a beta of 0.84.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $25.45 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.45 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 19.97% and a net margin of 8.95%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.92 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Equinor ASA in the third quarter valued at about $1,933,000. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in 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. Milestone Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Equinor ASA in the second quarter valued at about $794,000. Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in 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, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in Equinor ASA in the third quarter valued at about $2,509,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company's stock.

About Equinor ASA

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.