Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Reduces Position in Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lowered its holdings in Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 18.7% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 17,667 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,055 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $419,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. ABC Arbitrage SA acquired a new stake in Equinor ASA in the fourth quarter valued at $9,043,000. Folketrygdfondet raised its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 111,466,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,640,631,000 after purchasing an additional 4,300,472 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 94,267 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,388,000 after purchasing an additional 9,512 shares in the last quarter. Drum Hill Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Equinor ASA during the fourth quarter worth about $4,023,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Equinor ASA by 62.3% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 62,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,486,000 after purchasing an additional 24,090 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on EQNR. Hsbc Global Res raised Equinor ASA to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. DZ Bank upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on shares of Equinor ASA from $30.90 to $28.20 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Danske raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $28.10.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

Shares of EQNR opened at $23.40 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.48. The firm has a market cap of $65.36 billion, a PE ratio of 7.53, a PEG ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.58. Equinor ASA has a twelve month low of $21.85 and a twelve month high of $29.32. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $24.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $24.22.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.82 by ($0.19). Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 20.33% and a net margin of 8.49%. As a group, research analysts expect that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.98%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 14th. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio is 37.30%.

Equinor ASA Company Profile

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.