Meritage Portfolio Management Acquires 2,849 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Meritage Portfolio Management increased its holdings in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 2.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 116,286 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,849 shares during the period. Meritage Portfolio Management’s holdings in BP were worth $4,117,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Madison Park Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in BP in the fourth quarter valued at about $226,000. Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of BP by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 50,088 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,773,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the fourth quarter valued at about $76,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in shares of BP by 15.0% in the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 500,704 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $17,725,000 after buying an additional 65,425 shares during the period. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the fourth quarter valued at about $93,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

BP Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of BP stock traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $39.62. The company had a trading volume of 5,112,419 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,521,505. BP p.l.c. has a 12 month low of $33.52 and a 12 month high of $40.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.36 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.52. The company has a market cap of $111.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.68.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $52.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.14 billion. BP had a return on equity of 16.00% and a net margin of 7.15%. BP’s quarterly revenue was down 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.59 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 16th were given a $0.4362 dividend. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.40%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Erste Group Bank raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $38.60 to $42.30 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Raymond James raised their target price on BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Scotiabank raised their target price on BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, TD Securities raised their target price on BP from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.72.

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.