Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Grows Stake in Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 50.2% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,945 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,325 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $315,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of EQNR. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 24,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $805,000 after buying an additional 355 shares in the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.4% in the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 9,570 shares of the company’s stock valued at $314,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 16.0% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,971 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 409 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 10,172 shares of the company’s stock worth $337,000 after purchasing an additional 427 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Belpointe Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 18.5% during the 1st quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,844 shares of the company’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 443 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EQNR opened at $27.31 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $85.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.98 and a beta of 0.85. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.66. Equinor ASA has a 52 week low of $24.44 and a 52 week high of $34.73. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last issued its quarterly 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). 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. Equities research analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.26 EPS for the current year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, May 15th. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.39%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 25.06%.

Equinor ASA 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.