Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Sees Large Volume Increase

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) saw strong trading volume on Friday . 1,124,950 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 69% from the previous session’s volume of 3,573,880 shares.The stock last traded at $26.98 and had previously closed at $27.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on EQNR shares. DZ Bank downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $26.40 to $28.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on Equinor ASA from $26.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Equinor ASA presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.25.

Equinor ASA Trading Up 0.3 %

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.43 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.71, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market capitalization of $85.26 billion, a PE ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 0.85.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.08 by ($0.44). Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.32% and a net margin of 11.09%. The business had revenue of $29.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.35 billion. On average, analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.16%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in Equinor ASA by 1.5% during the third quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 24,548 shares of the company’s stock valued at $805,000 after buying an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Equinor ASA by 4.4% during the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,570 shares of the company’s stock worth $314,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its stake in Equinor ASA by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp now owns 10,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $345,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 16.0% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,971 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.4% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 10,172 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 427 shares during the period. 5.51% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.