BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Receives $41.10 Average PT from Analysts

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) has been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have issued a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $41.10.

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BP shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 27th. Scotiabank cut BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Redburn Atlantic cut BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of BP from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake 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 worth $20,281,000 after acquiring an additional 16,534 shares during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its holdings in shares of BP by 5.4% in the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 454,980 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,282,000 after purchasing an additional 23,325 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its holdings in BP by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 440,973 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $13,842,000 after buying an additional 5,150 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its position in BP by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 360,050 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $12,998,000 after buying an additional 7,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its stake in shares of BP by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 343,880 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $10,795,000 after buying an additional 12,700 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Stock Up 1.6 %

BP stock opened at $29.56 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $29.37 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $32.20. BP has a fifty-two week low of $27.82 and a fifty-two week high of $40.40. The firm has a market cap of $78.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.12, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that BP will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.50%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is 200.00%.

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.