Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Position Lessened by Jennison Associates LLC

Jennison Associates LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 25.3% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,117 shares of the company’s stock after selling 5,133 shares during the quarter. Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $478,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,284,862 shares of the company’s stock valued at $337,241,000 after buying an additional 444,435 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Equinor ASA by 5.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,774,455 shares of the company’s stock valued at $90,974,000 after purchasing an additional 134,688 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in Equinor ASA by 1.3% during the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,438,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,183,000 after purchasing an additional 18,694 shares during the last quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. boosted its position in Equinor ASA by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co. now owns 805,293 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,479,000 after purchasing an additional 14,466 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Equinor ASA by 25.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 694,773 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,983,000 after purchasing an additional 139,952 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQNR has been the subject of a number of research reports. DZ Bank cut Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 8th. TD Cowen initiated coverage on Equinor ASA in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. They set a “hold” rating and a $28.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley raised Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $26.40 to $28.50 in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.25.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

Shares of EQNR opened at $27.69 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $86.45 billion, a PE ratio of 8.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.98 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.88 and a quick ratio of 1.76. Equinor ASA has a one year low of $24.44 and a one year high of $34.73. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $26.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.48.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by ($0.44). The firm had revenue of $29.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $27.35 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 19.67% and a net margin of 9.30%. As a group, analysts expect that Equinor ASA will post 3.37 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 16th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.33%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 15th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is 30.34%.

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.