Freestone Capital Holdings LLC Grows Position in Equinor ASA $EQNR

Freestone Capital Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) by 24.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,285 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,630 shares during the quarter. Freestone Capital Holdings LLC’s holdings in Equinor ASA were worth $988,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Equinor ASA by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 3,804,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,630,000 after buying an additional 572,193 shares during the period. Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 1st quarter valued at $2,178,000. Park Avenue Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the second quarter worth $331,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 325.5% during the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 28,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 22,034 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Voya Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Equinor ASA during the first quarter valued at $7,459,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on EQNR. Hsbc Global Res downgraded Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Weiss Ratings lowered Equinor ASA from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Saturday, October 25th. DZ Bank cut Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Pareto Securities downgraded Equinor ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Equinor ASA from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and nine have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $22.71.

Equinor ASA Stock Performance

NYSE EQNR opened at $24.00 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $70.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.37, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 0.52. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $24.30 and a 200 day moving average of $24.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. Equinor ASA has a twelve month low of $21.41 and a twelve month high of $28.26.

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

Equinor ASA Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued 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 6.2%. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is 57.35%.

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.