Traders Buy High Volume of BP Put Options (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 46,647 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 114% compared to the typical daily volume of 21,791 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of BP by 27.0% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,755 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $104,000 after buying an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 4th quarter worth approximately $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of BP by 145.5% in the 4th quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $23,233,000 after acquiring an additional 388,931 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of BP by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 487,648 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $17,263,000 after acquiring an additional 59,379 shares during the period. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 1st quarter worth approximately $32,000. 11.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP stock traded up $0.45 on Thursday, hitting $34.15. The stock had a trading volume of 3,363,917 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,520,898. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $35.17 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $94.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.65. BP has a 52-week low of $32.51 and a 52-week high of $40.84.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that BP will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.62%. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is 59.56%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of BP in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. StockNews.com downgraded BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 29th. TD Securities increased their price objective on BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Erste Group Bank reissued a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, UBS Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.23.

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.