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

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st.

BP has increased its dividend payment by an average of 12.6% per year over the last three years. BP has a payout ratio of 47.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BP to earn $3.53 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 54.4%.

BP Stock Performance

BP stock traded up $0.15 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $34.70. The stock had a trading volume of 14,439,630 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,291,431. The stock has a market cap of $92.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $30.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $31.33. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. BP has a 1 year low of $27.82 and a 1 year high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.12). BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. As a group, analysts predict that BP will post 3.35 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on BP shares. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.64.

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.