Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR)

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders bought 6,095 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 15% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,301 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,734,000. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Equinor ASA by 38.5% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 125,044 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,955,000 after buying an additional 34,757 shares during the last quarter. DJE Kapital AG acquired a new stake in Equinor ASA in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,913,000. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the 1st quarter valued at $8,582,000. Finally, John G Ullman & Associates Inc. increased its position in Equinor ASA by 58.7% during the fourth quarter. John G Ullman & Associates Inc. now owns 128,809 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,044,000 after buying an additional 47,650 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQNR has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wall Street Zen lowered Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 4th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Equinor ASA from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Equinor ASA from an “underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $39.20.

Equinor ASA Stock Down 2.0%

EQNR traded down $0.80 during trading on Friday, hitting $40.19. The company had a trading volume of 3,255,480 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,797,679. Equinor ASA has a 1-year low of $22.26 and a 1-year high of $43.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $118.34 billion, a PE ratio of 10.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 0.06. The business has a 50-day moving average of $35.67 and a 200-day moving average of $33.92.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 22nd. The company reported $1.33 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.39 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $34.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.03 billion. Equinor ASA had a return on equity of 23.83% and a net margin of 7.92%. As a group, analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 4.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Equinor ASA Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 27th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. Equinor ASA’s payout ratio is currently 58.72%.

Equinor ASA Company Profile

Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR) is a Norway-based integrated energy company headquartered in Stavanger. Historically established as Statoil in the 1970s to develop Norway’s petroleum resources, the company changed its name to Equinor in 2018 to reflect a strategic shift toward a broader energy portfolio. Equinor’s operations span the full upstream value chain, including exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas, alongside trading and marketing activities that support its global commercial operations.

In recent years Equinor has pursued a transition strategy that combines continued development of conventional oil and gas resources with growing investments in low‑carbon energy.