Freedom Capital Downgrades BP (NYSE:BP) to Strong Sell

BP (NYSE:BP) was downgraded by equities researchers at Freedom Capital from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

BP has been the subject of several other research reports. HSBC cut shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $38.50 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday. BNP Paribas Exane lowered BP from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $38.50 target price on the stock. in a research note on Thursday. Melius Research lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $31.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $51.00 price target on shares of BP in a research report on Thursday, December 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of BP from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.35.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:BP opened at $37.69 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.74. BP has a 1-year low of $25.22 and a 1-year high of $39.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.24 billion, a P/E ratio of -3,764.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.33. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $35.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.12.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 10th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.03. BP had a net margin of 0.03% and a return on equity of 9.68%. The company had revenue of $47.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $42.19 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.44 EPS. BP’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that BP will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Strategic Advocates LLC bought a new stake in BP in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of BP in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. YANKCOM Partnership grew its holdings in shares of BP by 1,068.3% during the fourth quarter. YANKCOM Partnership now owns 958 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 876 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in BP in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $43,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About BP

BP plc is a British multinational integrated energy company headquartered in London. Originating in the early 20th century as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, BP has grown into one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, operating across exploration and production, refining and marketing, trading, and a range of low-carbon businesses.

The company’s core activities include upstream exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, midstream and trading operations, and downstream refining, marketing and supply of fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals.