BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Receives $37.48 Consensus Price Target from Analysts

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the twenty-one ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fourteen have issued a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $37.48.

BP has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. DZ Bank cut BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. TD Cowen downgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 17th.

BP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $27.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.25. The firm has a market cap of $73.76 billion, a PE ratio of 339.64, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.41. BP has a one year low of $26.43 and a one year high of $40.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $32.97 and a 200 day moving average of $31.30.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 earnings per share 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%. As a group, research analysts predict that BP will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.07%. BP’s payout ratio is currently 2,375.00%.

Institutional Trading of BP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BP. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $27,810,000 after acquiring an additional 38,759 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in 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 period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in BP by 30.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 474,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,040,000 after acquiring an additional 110,019 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its position 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, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its holdings in BP by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 343,880 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $10,795,000 after buying an additional 12,700 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.