Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Upgraded to Buy at HSBC

HSBC upgraded shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports.

EQNR has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Pareto Securities upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Nordea Equity Research upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $25.80 to $30.90 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $29.45.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

NYSE:EQNR opened at $24.53 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $23.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.81. The company has a market cap of $68.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.83. Equinor ASA has a 52 week low of $21.85 and a 52 week high of $29.32.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.63 EPS 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%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 3.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.35 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.71%. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.62%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EQNR. Folketrygdfondet raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.0% in the fourth quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 111,466,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,640,631,000 after buying an additional 4,300,472 shares during the last quarter. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,043,000. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the third quarter valued at about $6,203,000. Drum Hill Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the fourth quarter valued at about $4,023,000. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the third quarter valued at about $3,685,000. 5.51% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.