Eagle Asset Management Inc. Buys 891 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 10.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,134 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after buying an additional 891 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in BP were worth $264,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Altrius Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in BP by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 233,776 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $7,338,000 after purchasing an additional 20,976 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new position in shares of BP during the third quarter valued at approximately $857,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in BP in the second quarter worth $2,620,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its holdings in BP by 4.6% in the second 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. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc raised its holdings in BP by 93.4% in the 2nd quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 16,070 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $580,000 after purchasing an additional 7,761 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on BP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas lowered BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.73.

BP Trading Down 1.2 %

NYSE:BP opened at $28.96 on Wednesday. BP p.l.c. has a 52 week low of $27.82 and a 52 week high of $40.40. The stock has a market cap of $7.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.48, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 0.65. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $30.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that BP p.l.c. will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 200.00%.

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.