Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) Short Interest Up 6.5% in October

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 10,760,000 shares, an increase of 6.5% from the October 15th total of 10,100,000 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,540,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 2,359.3% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,783,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,354,000 after buying an additional 6,507,511 shares during the period. Mediolanum International Funds Ltd acquired a new position in Equinor ASA in the third quarter worth approximately $6,203,000. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Equinor ASA in the second quarter valued at $5,271,000. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Equinor ASA by 4.5% during the 1st 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 grew its holdings in shares of Equinor ASA by 1,334.9% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 5.51% of the company’s stock.

Equinor ASA Trading Down 2.0 %

NYSE:EQNR traded down $0.49 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $23.73. 2,454,337 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,406,385. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.48 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The firm has a market cap of $66.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.27, a PEG ratio of 5.21 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $24.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.44. Equinor ASA has a 52-week low of $22.15 and a 52-week high of $33.24.

Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $24.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Equinor ASA will post 3.31 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.