BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $39.64.

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on BP. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of BP from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank cut BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in BP by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 940,786 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $27,810,000 after purchasing an additional 38,759 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its holdings in BP by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 660,538 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $19,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,436 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in BP by 30.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 474,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $14,040,000 after purchasing an additional 110,019 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its holdings in BP by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 465,242 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $13,753,000 after purchasing an additional 10,262 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in BP by 1.2% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 440,973 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $13,842,000 after purchasing an additional 5,150 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE:BP opened at $35.31 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $94.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.16, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.33. BP has a twelve month low of $27.82 and a twelve month high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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, equities research analysts expect that BP will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 200.00%.

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.