Trending: Equinor to Return $14 Billion to Shareholders

1533 GMT - Equinor is among the most mentioned companies across news items over the past eight hours, according to Factiva data, after the company said that it would return $14 billion to shareholders alongside market-beating earnings for the fourth quarter. The Norwegian energy major plans to buy back shares worth $10 billion-$12 billion over the next two years, with $6 billion of that expected in 2024, and has declared dividends of $0.70 a share, down from $0.90 paid in the prior quarter. Adjusted earnings--the company's preferred measure--fell to $8.68 billion in the fourth quarter from $17.01 billion, against the $8.46 billion expected in a company-compiled consensus. Net profit fell to $2.6 billion compared with $7.9 billion a year earlier, and against $2.46 billion expected in a FactSet poll. RBC Capital Markets analyst Biraj Borkhataria writes that the result in upstream partially offset weakness in renewables, while the results in marketing, midstream and processing slightly missed consensus at $424 million versus $461 million. Shares were down 6.8% at NOK287.55. They are currently down 4% over the past 12 months. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva. (ian.walker@wsj.com.)

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February 07, 2024 10:48 ET (15:48 GMT)

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