BP (NYSE:BP) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of BP (NYSE:BP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Friday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on BP. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 price objective on shares of BP in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Barclays raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley lowered BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised BP to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.98.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $31.52 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market cap of $87.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a 12 month low of $30.52 and a 12 month high of $40.40. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $32.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.02.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. BP’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.09%. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.56%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in BP by 2.6% during 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 period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its stake in shares of BP by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 431,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $15,583,000 after purchasing an additional 19,140 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BP by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 429,773 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $15,515,000 after purchasing an additional 13,984 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its position in BP by 2.2% during the second 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 period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in shares of BP by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 250,659 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $9,445,000 after acquiring an additional 5,904 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.