BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Receives $43.88 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the nine ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $43.88.

BP has been the topic of several recent research reports. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of BP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, TD Securities upped their target price on shares of BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BP. PSquared Asset Management AG acquired a new position in shares of BP during the 4th quarter valued at about $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC increased its position in BP by 145.5% during the 4th quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $23,233,000 after purchasing an additional 388,931 shares in the last quarter. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BP during the 1st quarter worth approximately $6,682,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its position in BP by 15.0% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 500,704 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $17,725,000 after purchasing an additional 65,425 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in BP by 13.9% during the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 487,648 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $17,263,000 after purchasing an additional 59,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE:BP opened at $34.90 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. BP has a fifty-two week low of $33.52 and a fifty-two week high of $40.84. The stock has a market cap of $97.23 billion, a PE ratio of 10.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.65. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.58.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.03 by ($0.06). BP had a return on equity of 13.49% and a net margin of 4.51%. The business had revenue of $48.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.66 earnings per share. BP’s quarterly revenue was down 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that BP will post 4.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $0.4362 per share. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.92%.

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.