BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Declares $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st.

BP has raised its dividend payment by an average of 12.6% per year over the last three years. BP has a payout ratio of 47.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BP to earn $3.53 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 54.4%.

BP Price Performance

NYSE BP traded up $0.15 on Wednesday, reaching $34.70. The company had a trading volume of 16,533,928 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,291,881. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.90 billion, a PE ratio of 36.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $30.57 and its 200 day moving average price is $31.33. BP has a 12 month low of $27.82 and a 12 month high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.12). BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. As a group, equities analysts predict that BP will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on BP shares. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. DZ Bank downgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.64.

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.