Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-two brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and ten have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.71.
BP has been the topic of several research reports. Berenberg Bank raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 15th. Raymond James lifted their target price on BP from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of BP in a report on Monday, October 11th. Zacks Investment Research cut BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $26.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating on shares of BP in a research note on Tuesday, November 9th.
A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of BP. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in BP by 99.4% during the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,652,137 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $43,561,000 after buying an additional 823,441 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in shares of BP by 179.2% during the 2nd quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 649,637 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $17,163,000 after purchasing an additional 416,962 shares during the last quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BP during the 3rd quarter valued at $5,316,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of BP by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 4,314,245 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $113,981,000 after purchasing an additional 220,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its holdings in shares of BP by 14.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 840,858 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $22,980,000 after purchasing an additional 107,905 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 8.56% of the company’s stock.
Shares of BP stock opened at $25.96 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $27.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.47. BP has a 52 week low of $19.56 and a 52 week high of $30.29. The company has a market capitalization of $86.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.45, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.67.
BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 1st. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.99 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.03. BP had a return on equity of 9.89% and a net margin of 4.11%. The business had revenue of $37.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $39.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.03 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that BP will post 3.77 earnings per share for the current year.
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.3276 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 10th. This represents a $1.31 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.05%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 66.84%.
About BP
BP Plc operates as an integrated oil and gas company. It operates through the following segments: Upstream, Downstream and Rosneft. The Upstream segment engages in the oil and natural gas exploration, field development and production, midstream transportation, storage and processing and marketing and trade of natural gas, including liquefied natural gas and power and natural gas liquids.