BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Receives $43.14 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-one brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $43.1364.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on BP shares. Weiss Ratings cut shares of BP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of BP in a report on Thursday, October 9th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, September 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 8th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Friday.

Institutional Trading of BP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BP. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,738 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $198,000 after buying an additional 374 shares in the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in BP by 3.3% during the second quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,513 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $375,000 after acquiring an additional 398 shares in the last quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC grew its holdings in BP by 6.0% in the first quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 8,022 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $271,000 after purchasing an additional 451 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of BP by 7.4% during the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 8,295 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. boosted its position in shares of BP by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. now owns 37,941 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,136,000 after purchasing an additional 592 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP stock opened at $35.24 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $92.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 60.75, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.32. BP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $37.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.19. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $35.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.59.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 4th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $48.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $43.76 billion. BP had a net margin of 0.79% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.83 EPS. Analysts expect that BP will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be issued a $0.4992 dividend. This is a boost from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. BP’s payout ratio is presently 341.38%.

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.