Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Shares Gap Down – Here’s Why

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $25.67, but opened at $25.02. Equinor ASA shares last traded at $25.11, with a volume of 534,167 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on EQNR. Barclays raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic raised shares of Equinor ASA from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $29.45.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $70.18 billion, a PE ratio of 7.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.31 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $23.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.23.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $25.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.45 billion. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 19.97%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.92 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.36 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EQNR. Choreo LLC bought a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the second quarter valued at about $279,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 6.8% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 230,252 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,576,000 after acquiring an additional 14,705 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 13.3% in the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 416,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,898,000 after acquiring an additional 49,029 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 21.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 32,709 shares of the company’s stock valued at $913,000 after acquiring an additional 5,680 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 3.0% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 19,260 shares of the company’s stock valued at $550,000 after acquiring an additional 559 shares in the last quarter. 5.51% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.