BP (NYSE:BP) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy” Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of BP (NYSE:BP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Tuesday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. HSBC downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. BNP Paribas downgraded BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.73.

BP Price Performance

Shares of BP opened at $28.93 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.54 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94. BP has a 1-year low of $28.80 and a 1-year high of $40.40. The stock has a market cap of $78.47 billion, a PE ratio of 30.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.65.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. BP’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that BP will post 3.71 EPS for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. BP’s payout ratio is 200.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Strategic Blueprint LLC raised its holdings in shares of BP by 2.6% in the second quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 13,200 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $477,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in BP by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BP by 9.0% in the third quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 4,549 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. SouthState Corp lifted its holdings in shares of BP by 0.3% during the second quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 128,246 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $4,630,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the period. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in BP by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,001 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $289,000 after buying an additional 408 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.