Emprise Bank Acquires New Stake in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Emprise Bank bought a new stake in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,052 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $228,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $123,000. PSquared Asset Management AG acquired a new position in shares of BP during the 4th quarter worth $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in BP by 13.9% during 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 buying an additional 59,379 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in BP during the fourth quarter worth about $70,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on BP shares. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a report on Friday, June 14th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $38.60 to $42.30 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on shares of BP from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $43.88.

BP Stock Performance

BP stock opened at $35.39 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $37.43 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.48. BP p.l.c. has a 52 week low of $33.52 and a 52 week high of $40.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $98.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.09, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.03 by ($0.06). BP had a return on equity of 13.49% and a net margin of 4.51%. The company had revenue of $48.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.66 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that BP p.l.c. will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.4362 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.93%. BP’s payout ratio is 53.92%.

BP 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.