Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Given Hold Rating at Jefferies Financial Group

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reissued by equities research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research note on Friday, October 31st. 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. DZ Bank lowered Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and ten have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $22.71.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Equinor ASA stock opened at $23.06 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $24.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The company has a market capitalization of $67.89 billion, a PE ratio of 10.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 0.36. Equinor ASA has a one year low of $21.41 and a one year high of $28.26.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.57 by ($0.20). The company had revenue of $26.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.26 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 14.34% and a net margin of 5.27%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EQNR. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 17.7% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,804,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,630,000 after acquiring an additional 572,193 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 2nd quarter valued at about $331,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 325.5% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 28,803 shares of the company’s stock valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 22,034 shares in the last quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the first quarter valued at about $7,459,000. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Equinor ASA during the second quarter worth about $503,000. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.