BP (NYSE:BP) Given New $31.80 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

BP (NYSE:BP) had its price target reduced by Morgan Stanley from $34.70 to $31.80 in a research note released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on BP. Scotiabank cut shares of BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 27th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on BP from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.89.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $31.82 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $85.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. BP has a 12-month low of $27.82 and a 12-month high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. Equities analysts expect that BP will post 3.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.03%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 200.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,089,000. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in BP by 860.7% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 66,464 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $2,086,000 after acquiring an additional 59,546 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BP during the 3rd quarter worth $857,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its stake in shares of BP by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 454,980 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $14,282,000 after purchasing an additional 23,325 shares during the period. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of BP by 9.9% in the third quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 233,776 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $7,338,000 after purchasing an additional 20,976 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Company Profile

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.