BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.73.

A number of research firms have recently commented on BP. Scotiabank cut BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded BP to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. HSBC cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its stake in BP by 9.9% in the 3rd quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 233,776 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $7,338,000 after acquiring an additional 20,976 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the third quarter valued at approximately $857,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of BP during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,620,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in BP by 4.6% in 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 buying an additional 19,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its holdings in BP by 93.4% during the 2nd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 16,070 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $580,000 after buying an additional 7,761 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE:BP opened at $29.31 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 30.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $30.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $33.35. BP has a 12 month low of $27.82 and a 12 month high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The firm had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.55%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 200.00%.

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.