BP (NYSE:BP) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

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

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on BP. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on BP from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Redburn Atlantic cut BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Scotiabank cut BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $41.10.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $28.96 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $77.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $32.32. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results 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 business 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 quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that BP will post 3.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of BP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in BP during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,620,000. Graypoint LLC increased its holdings in shares of BP by 11.7% in the second quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 8,261 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 865 shares during the period. Nilsine Partners LLC raised its position in shares of BP by 6.8% in the second quarter. Nilsine Partners LLC now owns 20,388 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $736,000 after buying an additional 1,301 shares in the last quarter. Summit Financial LLC boosted its stake in BP by 101.5% during the second quarter. Summit Financial LLC now owns 14,654 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $529,000 after buying an additional 7,383 shares during the period. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in BP by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 29,235 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,055,000 after acquiring an additional 571 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.