Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) was the target of a large decline in short interest in March. As of March 13th, there was short interest totaling 19,996,345 shares, a decline of 34.0% from the February 26th total of 30,304,526 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 10,892,265 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.8 days. Currently, 0.7% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of EQNR. Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in Equinor ASA during the third quarter valued at $730,757,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Equinor ASA by 30.2% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 15,759,942 shares of the company’s stock worth $384,227,000 after acquiring an additional 3,659,611 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Equinor ASA by 1,437.7% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,286,328 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,741,000 after acquiring an additional 2,137,642 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Equinor ASA by 113.0% during the 2nd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 1,787,778 shares of the company’s stock valued at $44,945,000 after acquiring an additional 948,609 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Equinor ASA in the 3rd quarter valued at about $21,366,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on EQNR shares. UBS Group raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Zacks Research raised Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Pareto Securities downgraded Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Equinor ASA in a research note on Thursday, January 8th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Equinor ASA from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $34.61.

Equinor ASA Trading Up 2.1%

Shares of EQNR traded up $0.89 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $42.42. The stock had a trading volume of 7,792,649 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,240,342. Equinor ASA has a fifty-two week low of $21.41 and a fifty-two week high of $43.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.20 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $26.41. The firm has a market cap of $124.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.33 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $25.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $21.31 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 4.74% and a return on equity of 15.23%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 EPS for the current year.

Equinor ASA Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This is an increase from Equinor ASA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.37. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.7%. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.21%.

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.