BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Stock Now Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Brokerages

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have issued a hold recommendation, sixteen have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $48.44.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on BP shares. Mizuho boosted their price target on BP from $53.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 5th. HSBC upgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $46.00 to $51.30 in a report on Friday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 23rd. Freedom Capital raised shares of BP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on shares of BP from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd.

Institutional Trading of BP

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of BP by 290.2% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,049,151 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $75,716,000 after acquiring an additional 1,524,048 shares in the last quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. lifted its position in shares of BP by 48.8% during the 2nd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,830,923 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $104,603,000 after acquiring an additional 928,617 shares during the period. Kahn Brothers Group Inc. bought a new position in BP during the second quarter worth $23,094,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in BP during the first quarter worth $28,136,000. Finally, Readystate Asset Management LP boosted its stake in BP by 322.4% during the second quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 619,670 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $22,897,000 after acquiring an additional 472,974 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Trading Down 0.1%

NYSE BP opened at $46.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $121.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 0.20. BP has a twelve month low of $32.72 and a twelve month high of $48.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The business’s fifty day moving average is $44.02 and its 200 day moving average is $43.51.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $69.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.89 billion. BP had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 2.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 106.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BP will post 7.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th were issued a dividend of $0.5196 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.5%. This is a boost from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.4992. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 100.49%.

BP Company Profile

BP p.l.c. is a global integrated energy company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its operations span the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas, as well as the processing, refining, transportation and marketing of energy products.

Through its businesses, BP supplies fuels for road transportation, aviation and marine use, along with lubricants marketed under the Castrol brand. The company also operates retail fuel and convenience locations and provides energy products and services to commercial and industrial customers.

BP has expanded its activities beyond traditional hydrocarbons to include lower-carbon businesses such as renewable power, bioenergy, electric-vehicle charging and hydrogen.