Strategic Blueprint LLC Purchases 330 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Strategic Blueprint LLC raised its position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 13,200 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after buying an additional 330 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC’s holdings in BP were worth $477,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 27.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,755 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $104,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG acquired a new position in BP during the fourth quarter worth $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC boosted its holdings in BP by 145.5% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in BP by 13.9% during the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in BP during the first quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Price Performance

BP stock traded up $0.05 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $34.28. The stock had a trading volume of 715,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,282,522. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. BP p.l.c. has a 52 week low of $32.51 and a 52 week high of $40.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.65. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The company had revenue of $47.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.89 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast that BP p.l.c. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.60%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 59.56%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on BP. Morgan Stanley cut shares of BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the company from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. StockNews.com cut shares of BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 29th. TD Securities increased their price target on shares of BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of BP in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of BP from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.23.

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.