Why Massif Capital is Bullish on Equinor (EQNR) Stock?

North Carolina-based asset management firm Massif Capital, LLC released its first-quarter investor letter this month – a copy of which is available for download here. The fund was co-founded and is currently being co-managed by Will Thomson and Chip Russell. In their recent letter to investors, Massif Capital announced that the core portfolio was up 3.1% in the first quarter.

In the said letter, Massif Capital highlighted a few stocks and Equinor Asa (NYSE:EQNR) is one of them. Equinor is engaged in oil and gas exploration and production activities. Year-to-date, EQNR stock lost 31.4% and on April 29th it had a closing price of $13.88. Its market cap is of $45.5 billion. Here is what Massif Capital said:

“Equinor (EQNX) serves as a strong ballast position with a large resource base, strong balance sheet, and the added benefit of an appealing dividend that will almost certainly be reconsidered by management, but is generally secure. Equnior is also driving its business towards a more sustainable and less carbon-intensive model. Equinor is developing and operating some of the lowest carbon-intensive oil reserves in the world. This signficantly reduces their risk of future stranded assets. Meeting the terms of the UN Paris Agreement would leave 29% of oil reserves stranded and eliminate roughly $360 billion in the value of the top 13 international oil companies by reserves. Equivalent to greater than 1/6th of their total enterprise value. We believe that EQNR has limited downside risk in this regard and will play an essential role in the evolving energy landscape as it burnishes its green credentials with interests in offshore wind.”

In Q4 2019, the number of bullish hedge fund positions on EQNR stock decreased by about 7% from the previous quarter (see the chart here).

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.