Ping Capital Management Inc. Makes New Investment in BP p.l.c. $BP

Ping Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 15,000 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $449,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in BP. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its position in BP by 2,250.0% in the 1st quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 940 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co lifted its position in BP by 400.0% in the 1st quarter. Missouri Trust & Investment Co now owns 1,000 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC lifted its position in BP by 178.0% in the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC lifted its position in BP by 743.3% in the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,754 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. lifted its position in BP by 580.8% during the 1st quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. now owns 2,158 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $73,000 after buying an additional 1,841 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on BP shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of BP from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. BNP Paribas raised shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. DZ Bank raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Scotiabank raised shares of BP from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $42.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Melius Research started coverage on shares of BP in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $66.00 price target on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $42.05.

BP Stock Down 1.6%

BP stock opened at $33.90 on Friday. BP p.l.c. has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $35.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $89.26 billion, a PE ratio of 161.41, a P/E/G ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.54. The company’s 50-day moving average is $34.16 and its 200-day moving average is $31.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.22. BP had a net margin of 0.29% and a return on equity of 9.08%. The business had revenue of $46.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.88 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. BP’s quarterly revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BP p.l.c. will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Investors of record on Friday, August 15th were paid a $0.4942 dividend. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.8%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 942.86%.

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.