Equinor ASA Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:EQNR)

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Traders bought 8,984 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 333% compared to the typical volume of 2,074 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQNR. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in Equinor ASA during the third quarter worth $7,314,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 45.6% during the third quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 21,840 shares of the company’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 6,840 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 1,437.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,286,328 shares of the company’s stock worth $55,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,137,642 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.6% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 877,191 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,386,000 after purchasing an additional 38,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new position in Equinor ASA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $21,366,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on EQNR shares. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Zacks Research lowered shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research note on Monday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and ten have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Equinor ASA currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $22.71.

Equinor ASA Trading Up 2.3%

NYSE EQNR opened at $22.93 on Thursday. Equinor ASA has a 1 year low of $21.41 and a 1 year high of $28.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a market capitalization of $67.51 billion, a PE ratio of 10.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.88 and a beta of 0.37. The company has a fifty day moving average of $23.50 and a 200 day moving average of $24.63.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.20). Equinor ASA had a net margin of 5.27% and a return on equity of 14.34%. The company had revenue of $26.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.26 billion. Research analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th were paid a dividend of $0.37 per share. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This is a positive change from Equinor ASA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is 57.82%.

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.