Investors Buy Large Volume of BP Call Options (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors bought 44,759 call options on the company. This is an increase of 87% compared to the typical daily volume of 23,955 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank cut shares of BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. StockNews.com cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $41.10.

BP Trading Up 2.1 %

NYSE:BP traded up $0.65 on Monday, reaching $31.12. The stock had a trading volume of 4,843,418 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,071,360. The company has a market cap of $83.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $29.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.10. BP has a 12-month low of $27.82 and a 12-month high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. Equities analysts expect that BP will post 3.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 200.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BP. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in BP during the second quarter worth $75,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in BP by 41.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,221 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $66,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC increased its position in BP by 32.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,533 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 621 shares during the period. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the third quarter worth $91,000. Finally, Anchor Investment Management LLC increased its position in BP by 58.7% in the third quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 3,120 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $98,000 after buying an additional 1,154 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.