BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the nineteen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have given a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and three have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $42.98.

A number of analysts have commented on BP shares. StockNews.com raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Royal Bank of Canada cut BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank lowered 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. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th.

BP Stock Down 0.7 %

BP opened at $32.11 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $32.87 and its 200 day moving average is $35.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.64, a PEG ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a fifty-two week low of $30.52 and a fifty-two week high of $40.84.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. Research analysts expect that BP will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were given a $0.48 dividend. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.80%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BP. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its position 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 worth $20,281,000 after acquiring an additional 16,534 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its position in shares of BP by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 431,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $15,583,000 after acquiring an additional 19,140 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in BP by 3.4% in the second quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 429,773 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $15,515,000 after acquiring an additional 13,984 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC grew 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 purchasing an additional 7,850 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in BP by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 250,659 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $9,445,000 after buying an additional 5,904 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.