Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Shares Gap Up – Time to Buy?

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $22.67, but opened at $23.62. Equinor ASA shares last traded at $23.61, with a volume of 1,775,125 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQNR has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Barclays raised shares of Equinor ASA to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. UBS Group raised Equinor ASA from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Citigroup raised Equinor ASA to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Equinor ASA from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Equinor ASA from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $25.80 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.90.

Equinor ASA Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average of $24.67 and a 200 day moving average of $26.50. 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 has a market capitalization of $65.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.84.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.05. Equinor ASA had a net margin of 8.95% and a return on equity of 19.97%. The business had revenue of $25.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.45 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.92 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Equinor ASA will post 3.31 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Equinor ASA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of EQNR. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in Equinor ASA by 2,359.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,783,338 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,354,000 after purchasing an additional 6,507,511 shares during the last quarter. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the third quarter worth $6,203,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Equinor ASA in the second quarter worth $5,271,000. Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.5% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,865,504 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,485,000 after acquiring an additional 166,131 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its position in shares of Equinor ASA by 1,334.9% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 176,993 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,055,000 after acquiring an additional 164,658 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Equinor ASA Company 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.