BP Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders acquired 1,099,171 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 3,260% compared to the average daily volume of 32,718 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 4.3% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 2.2% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 30.1% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 2.3% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 1.2% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on BP. DZ Bank lowered BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on BP from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded BP from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.64.

BP Trading Down 2.3 %

BP stock opened at $33.87 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. BP has a 12-month low of $27.82 and a 12-month high of $40.40. The stock has a market cap of $90.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 423.37, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 0.64. The business’s 50-day moving average is $31.37 and its 200 day moving average is $31.39.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 10.96% and a net margin of 0.20%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be issued a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. BP’s payout ratio is 2,375.00%.

About BP

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.