BP p.l.c. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.48 (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, October 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th.

BP has decreased its dividend by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. BP has a dividend payout ratio of 46.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BP to earn $4.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.0%.

BP Price Performance

BP traded down $0.34 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $29.02. The stock had a trading volume of 19,289,332 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,419,202. BP has a 1-year low of $29.00 and a 1-year high of $40.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $32.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.83. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The business had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BP has been the subject of a number of research reports. HSBC cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Scotiabank lowered BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Hsbc Global Res raised BP to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.73.

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.