Wedbush Securities Inc. Cuts Stake in Equinor ASA $EQNR

Wedbush Securities Inc. decreased its position in Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 9.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,599 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,469 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $593,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Montag A & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in Equinor ASA in the first quarter valued at about $53,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in Equinor ASA during the 1st quarter worth approximately $57,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Equinor ASA by 7,586.7% during the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 2,276 shares during the period. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 30.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 2,743 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after buying an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $74,000. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQNR has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res lowered Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings raised Equinor ASA from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays reaffirmed an “underweight” rating on shares of Equinor ASA in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 3rd. Finally, 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and eight have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $22.71.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

Shares of EQNR opened at $24.70 on Wednesday. Equinor ASA has a 12-month low of $21.41 and a 12-month high of $28.26. The stock has a market cap of $72.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.71, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a 50-day moving average of $24.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.66.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.57 by ($0.20). Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 14.11% and a net margin of 5.27%.The business had revenue of $26.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $23.26 billion. As a group, research analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinor ASA Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This is a positive change from Equinor ASA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.0%. Equinor ASA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 57.35%.

About Equinor ASA

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.