QRG Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in Equinor ASA $EQNR

QRG Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 50.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 90,287 shares of the company’s stock after selling 90,933 shares during the quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $2,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 21.5% in the second quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 12,100,331 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,202,000 after acquiring an additional 2,143,049 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 113.0% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,787,778 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,945,000 after purchasing an additional 948,609 shares during the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd grew its position in Equinor ASA by 140.4% in the 2nd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 570,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,346,000 after purchasing an additional 333,233 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Equinor ASA by 38.2% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,141,731 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,703,000 after buying an additional 315,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC raised its stake in Equinor ASA by 381.2% during the 2nd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 396,163 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,960,000 after buying an additional 313,837 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays restated an “underweight” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Zacks Research cut Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Equinor ASA in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Equinor ASA from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and nine have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $22.71.

Equinor ASA Trading Up 2.7%

Equinor ASA stock opened at $25.37 on Tuesday. Equinor ASA has a 12-month low of $21.41 and a 12-month high of $28.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.02, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 0.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $23.45 and a 200 day moving average of $24.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.20). The firm had revenue of $26.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.26 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 5.27% and a return on equity of 14.34%. As a group, research analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Investors of record on Friday, November 14th were issued a $0.37 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 14th. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.8%. This is an increase from Equinor ASA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is currently 57.82%.

About Equinor ASA

Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR) is a Norway-based integrated energy company headquartered in Stavanger. Historically established as Statoil in the 1970s to develop Norway’s petroleum resources, the company changed its name to Equinor in 2018 to reflect a strategic shift toward a broader energy portfolio. Equinor’s operations span the full upstream value chain, including exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas, alongside trading and marketing activities that support its global commercial operations.

In recent years Equinor has pursued a transition strategy that combines continued development of conventional oil and gas resources with growing investments in low‑carbon energy.