BP (NYSE:BP) Raised to Buy at StockNews.com

BP (NYSE:BP) was upgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on BP. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of BP from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, 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. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.89.

BP Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:BP opened at $31.32 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $29.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $31.97. The company has a market capitalization of $83.68 billion, a PE ratio of 32.97, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a 52 week low of $27.82 and a 52 week high of $40.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.22.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. The firm’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that BP will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BP. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in shares of BP by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 646,102 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $20,281,000 after purchasing an additional 16,534 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in BP by 5.4% in the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 454,980 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,282,000 after buying an additional 23,325 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 440,973 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $13,842,000 after buying an additional 5,150 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in shares of BP by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 360,050 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $12,998,000 after acquiring an additional 7,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its stake in BP by 3.8% during 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 worth $10,795,000 after acquiring an additional 12,700 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.