Short Interest in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Grows By 80.9%

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totaling 16,532,927 shares, a growth of 80.9% from the May 31st total of 9,136,996 shares. Approximately 0.6% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 7,062,628 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Institutional Trading of BP

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new stake in shares of BP during the fourth quarter worth $67,890,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in BP in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,136,000. New York State Common Retirement Fund acquired a new position in BP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $17,768,000. Sagefield Capital LP raised its holdings in shares of BP by 125.2% in the fourth quarter. Sagefield Capital LP now owns 493,556 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $17,141,000 after purchasing an additional 274,381 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in BP by 20.7% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 432,646 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $20,334,000 after purchasing an additional 74,243 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on BP shares. Morgan Stanley raised shares of BP from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $49.40 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 24th. HSBC raised BP from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $35.10 to $45.30 in a report on Friday, March 20th. Scotiabank increased their target price on BP from $41.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of BP in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.14.

BP Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $37.37 on Friday. BP has a fifty-two week low of $29.99 and a fifty-two week high of $48.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $97.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.64 and a beta of 0.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $42.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.65.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $52.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $48.50 billion. BP had a net margin of 1.62% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. On average, analysts predict that BP will post 5.49 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were given a $0.4992 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 165.00%.

BP Company Profile

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.