BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eighteen analysts that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $44.23.

BP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Evercore ISI upgraded BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley downgraded BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. Wolfe Research started coverage on BP in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 29th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in BP by 27.0% during the first 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 bought a new position in shares of BP in the fourth quarter worth $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC lifted its position in BP by 145.5% during the fourth quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $23,233,000 after purchasing an additional 388,931 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in BP by 13.9% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 59,379 shares in the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new position in BP in the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

BP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $34.47 on Friday. BP has a fifty-two week low of $32.51 and a fifty-two week high of $40.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $95.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.81, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average of $34.89 and a 200-day moving average of $36.38.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The firm had revenue of $47.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.82 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.89 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that BP will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This is a boost from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.57%. BP’s payout ratio is 59.56%.

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.