Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Shares Gap Up – Still a Buy?

Shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) gapped up before the market opened on Friday . The stock had previously closed at $35.63, but opened at $36.88. Equinor ASA shares last traded at $37.1040, with a volume of 927,713 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on EQNR. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Equinor ASA from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. DZ Bank raised Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 6th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 4th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $40.40 price target for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Equinor ASA from $42.00 to $37.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $38.70.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $35.62 and a 200-day moving average of $33.42. The firm has a market cap of $110.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The company reported $1.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.47. The business had revenue of $28.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $28.73 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.01% and a net margin of 5.30%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Equinor ASA will post 4.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.2%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 58.72%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EQNR. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in Equinor ASA by 1,437.7% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,286,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,741,000 after purchasing an additional 2,137,642 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Equinor ASA in the fourth quarter worth $4,734,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Equinor ASA by 38.5% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 125,044 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,955,000 after buying an additional 34,757 shares during the last quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. increased its position in Equinor ASA by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 128,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,044,000 after buying an additional 47,650 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Logan Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Logan Capital Management Inc. now owns 251,463 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,942,000 after buying an additional 22,542 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Equinor ASA Company Profile

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.