Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 8.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,148 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,593 shares during the period. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $1,212,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. ABC Arbitrage SA purchased a new position in Equinor ASA during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,043,000. Folketrygdfondet lifted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Folketrygdfondet now owns 111,466,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,640,631,000 after buying an additional 4,300,472 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Equinor ASA by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 94,267 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,388,000 after buying an additional 9,512 shares during the period. Drum Hill Capital LLC bought a new position in Equinor ASA in the 4th quarter worth $4,023,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Equinor ASA by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 557,483 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,207,000 after buying an additional 34,720 shares in the last quarter. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on EQNR shares. Nordea Equity Research raised Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. DZ Bank upgraded Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Equinor ASA to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Equinor ASA from $30.90 to $28.20 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $28.10.

Equinor ASA Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE EQNR opened at $25.18 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Equinor ASA has a 12-month low of $21.85 and a 12-month high of $29.32. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $23.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.79.

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

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 37.30%.

Equinor ASA 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.