Brokerages Set BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Target Price at $44.23

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the eighteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $44.23.

Several brokerages recently weighed in on BP. Erste Group Bank restated a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on BP from $47.00 to $42.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of BP in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $49.90 to $41.50 in a report on Monday, July 15th.

Institutional Trading of BP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BP. Strategic Blueprint LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 13,200 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of BP by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,245 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $469,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 12.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $112,000 after buying an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. SouthState Corp boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 128,246 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $4,630,000 after buying an additional 393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of BP by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,001 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 408 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of BP stock opened at $32.86 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.99. BP has a 52 week low of $30.67 and a 52 week high of $40.84. The stock has a market cap of $91.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.30, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company had revenue of $47.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that BP will post 3.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This is a positive change 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.84%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.56%.

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.