BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Receives $42.98 Consensus PT from Brokerages

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the nineteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $42.98.

Several analysts recently issued reports on BP shares. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Barclays upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Scotiabank lowered shares of BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of BP to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $32.00 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $32.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.42. BP has a 1 year low of $30.52 and a 1 year high of $40.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $88.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.03, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.24.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The company had revenue of $47.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.48 dividend. This is a boost from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.00%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BP. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its position in shares of BP by 2.6% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 646,102 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $20,281,000 after buying an additional 16,534 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 11.3% in the third quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 18,683 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $586,000 after buying an additional 1,900 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 32.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,533 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 15.9% in the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 54,252 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,703,000 after buying an additional 7,444 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. increased its position in shares of BP by 46.1% in the third quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 62,920 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,975,000 after buying an additional 19,857 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

About BP

BP p.l.c. provides carbon products and services. The company operates through Gas & Low Carbon Energy, Oil Production & Operations, and Customers & Products segments. It engages in the production of natural gas, and integrated gas and power; trading of gas; operation of onshore and offshore wind power, as well as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage facilities; trading and marketing of renewable and non-renewable power; and production of crude oil.