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

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nineteen analysts that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $41.10.

A number of analysts have recently commented on BP shares. Scotiabank cut BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. BNP Paribas cut shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped 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 report on Monday, December 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price objective on BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of BP. Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in BP by 58.7% during the 3rd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 3,120 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $98,000 after acquiring an additional 1,154 shares in the last quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of BP by 4.5% during the third quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 50,333 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,580,000 after purchasing an additional 2,187 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky increased its holdings in BP by 3.8% in the third quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 343,880 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $10,795,000 after buying an additional 12,700 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in BP by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 11,459 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Finally, IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of BP by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 14,123 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $444,000 after acquiring an additional 652 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BP opened at $28.79 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. BP has a twelve month low of $27.82 and a twelve month high of $40.40. The company’s 50 day moving average is $29.63 and its 200 day moving average is $32.44. The company has a market cap of $76.92 billion, a PE ratio of 30.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that BP will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. BP’s payout ratio is currently 200.00%.

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.