Piper Sandler Has Lowered Expectations for BP (NYSE:BP) Stock Price

BP (NYSE:BP) had its price target cut by Piper Sandler from $36.00 to $32.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. BNP Paribas downgraded BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price 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. Scotiabank cut BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.10.

BP Stock Performance

BP opened at $28.41 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $32.63. The company has a market capitalization of $75.91 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a 1 year low of $27.82 and a 1 year high of $40.40. 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 earnings per share (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 business had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that BP will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 200.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its stake in BP by 85.7% in the 2nd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 1,300 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in BP by 3.4% during 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 buying an additional 13,984 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of BP by 25.3% during the second quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 51,513 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,860,000 after acquiring an additional 10,385 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of BP in the second quarter worth about $2,620,000. 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.