Lazard Asset Management LLC Reduces Stock Holdings in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Lazard Asset Management LLC reduced its stake in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 1.3% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,540,607 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 46,320 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned 0.13% of BP worth $133,408,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in BP in the first quarter valued at approximately $32,000. First United Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 576.0% in the fourth quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,129 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 962 shares during the period. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Finally, Harbor Investment Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 200.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $56,000 after acquiring an additional 1,060 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley downgraded BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $49.90 to $41.50 in a report on Monday, July 15th. TD Securities increased their price target on BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on BP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 12th. Erste Group Bank reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on BP from $47.00 to $42.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $44.48.

BP Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:BP traded up $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $35.25. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,135,519 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,329,239. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $35.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.94. BP p.l.c. has a twelve month low of $33.52 and a twelve month high of $40.84. The stock has a market cap of $97.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.65.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $48.88 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.65 billion. BP had a return on equity of 13.49% and a net margin of 4.51%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.66 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that BP p.l.c. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $0.4362 dividend. This represents a $1.74 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.92%.

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.