Argent Trust Co Grows Stock Position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Argent Trust Co increased its stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 10.1% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 13,571 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,250 shares during the quarter. Argent Trust Co’s holdings in BP were worth $490,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. PSquared Asset Management AG bought a new position in shares of BP in the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 145.5% in the fourth quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $23,233,000 after acquiring an additional 388,931 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake in shares of BP by 26.7% during the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 629,568 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $22,727,000 after acquiring an additional 132,750 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of BP by 13.9% in 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 purchasing an additional 59,379 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its holdings in 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 valued at $15,583,000 after purchasing an additional 19,140 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BP. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of BP in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of BP in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Argus raised BP to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.23.

BP Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE:BP opened at $32.76 on Friday. BP p.l.c. has a 12-month low of $30.67 and a 12-month high of $40.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $90.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.27, a PEG ratio of 3.96 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.04. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $47.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. BP’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that BP p.l.c. will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.86%. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.56%.

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.