BP (NYSE:BP) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

BP (NYSE:BP) released its earnings results on Tuesday. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.13, reports. The company had revenue of $48.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.76 billion. BP had a net margin of 0.29% and a return on equity of 9.08%. BP’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $35.94 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. BP has a 52-week low of $25.22 and a 52-week high of $36.13. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.44 and a 200-day simple moving average of $32.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 170.98, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.54.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.4992 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.6%. BP’s payout ratio is currently 938.10%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on BP. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of BP from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 18th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of BP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 6th. Berenberg Bank upgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of BP in a research note on Monday. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BP currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.59.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new position in BP in the second quarter valued at about $46,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its position in shares of BP by 7.4% during the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 8,295 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $248,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares in the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 3.3% during the second quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,513 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $375,000 after purchasing an additional 398 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of BP by 4.2% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 39,146 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,172,000 after purchasing an additional 1,588 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.