Citigroup Upgrades Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) to Strong Sell

Citigroup upgraded shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) to a strong sell rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on EQNR. UBS Group upgraded Equinor ASA from a sell rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays upgraded shares of Equinor ASA to a hold rating in a research note on Wednesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Equinor ASA from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Equinor ASA from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and cut their target price for the stock from $30.50 to $25.80 in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Stock Up 1.4 %

EQNR stock opened at $27.12 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.43 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.12 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.13. The company has a market capitalization of $79.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.40, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 0.83. Equinor ASA has a twelve month low of $24.02 and a twelve month high of $34.73.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 24th. The company reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $25.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $25.93 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 9.11% and a return on equity of 20.65%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.74 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a — dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, August 28th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 19th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 19th. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 43.34%.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQNR. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 27.1% in the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 365 shares in the last quarter. Peapack Gladstone Financial Corp lifted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 3.8% in 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 period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in Equinor ASA by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 56,658 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,618,000 after buying an additional 402 shares in the last quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in Equinor ASA by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 16,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $480,000 after buying an additional 440 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC increased its stake in Equinor ASA by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 19,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $550,000 after buying an additional 559 shares during the period. 5.51% of the stock is currently 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.