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

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 30th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, September 20th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.43%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 9th. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44.

BP has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. BP has a dividend payout ratio of 34.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BP to earn $5.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.74 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.1%.

BP Stock Up 1.7 %

BP stock opened at $35.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.23 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The company has a market cap of $98.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.65. BP has a 12 month low of $33.52 and a 12 month high of $40.84. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $35.78 and a 200 day moving average price of $36.56.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a return on equity of 13.67% and a net margin of 3.60%. 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 business posted $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that BP will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of BP in a research note on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $57.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on BP from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research report 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. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BP has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.23.

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.