Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at TD Cowen

TD Cowen initiated coverage on shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage issued a hold rating and a $28.00 target price on the stock.

EQNR has been the subject of a number of other research reports. DZ Bank cut Equinor ASA from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Equinor ASA from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and increased their target price for the company from $26.40 to $28.50 in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Equinor ASA from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equinor ASA currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $28.25.

Equinor ASA Stock Down 0.5 %

EQNR opened at $27.70 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $26.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.53. The company has a market cap of $86.48 billion, a PE ratio of 8.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.12 and a beta of 0.85. Equinor ASA has a 1 year low of $24.44 and a 1 year high of $34.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.71.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last posted its 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 analyst estimates of $27.35 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 19.78% and a net margin of 9.30%. Sell-side analysts expect that Equinor ASA will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 30.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EQNR. Folketrygdfondet raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 107,959,982 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,415,854,000 after acquiring an additional 917,330 shares in the last quarter. Cambiar Investors LLC acquired a new stake in Equinor ASA in the third quarter worth $21,931,000. FMR LLC increased its position in Equinor ASA by 4.5% in the third 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 period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in Equinor ASA by 39.3% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,045,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,105,000 after buying an additional 295,162 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Equinor ASA by 9.1% in the fourth 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 period. 5.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.