Short Interest in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Rises By 11.5%

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the target of a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,440,000 shares, an increase of 11.5% from the August 31st total of 9,360,000 shares. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 7,030,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.5 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on BP. HSBC lowered shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of BP in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of BP from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, BP presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.73.

BP Price Performance

NYSE:BP traded up $0.63 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $31.42. 11,500,178 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,370,869. 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’s 50-day moving average is $33.36 and its 200-day moving average is $35.85. The firm has a market cap of $87.04 billion, a PE ratio of 9.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a twelve month low of $30.52 and a twelve month high of $40.84.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.82 billion. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.89 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This is a boost from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.11%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 59.56%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BP. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG purchased a new stake in shares of BP in the 4th quarter worth about $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC raised its stake in BP by 145.5% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 388,931 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in BP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,620,000. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of BP during the 1st quarter valued at about $32,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.