BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty-three analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eight have given a hold recommendation, twelve have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $46.5923.

BP has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings raised shares of BP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of BP in a report on Friday, September 4th. Freedom Capital upgraded BP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Mizuho set a $53.00 price objective on BP in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. increased its stake in shares of BP by 48.8% during the 2nd quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 2,830,923 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $104,603,000 after purchasing an additional 928,617 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in BP by 290.2% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 2,049,151 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $75,716,000 after purchasing an additional 1,524,048 shares during the period. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT purchased a new stake in BP in the fourth quarter worth $67,890,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its stake in shares of BP by 15.8% in the second quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,410,714 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $52,307,000 after buying an additional 192,211 shares during the period. Finally, Kahn Brothers Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BP during the 2nd quarter valued at $23,094,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

BP Price Performance

BP opened at $44.61 on Friday. BP has a 1 year low of $32.72 and a 1 year high of $48.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $116.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.15. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $43.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.23.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.35. BP had a net margin of 2.49% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The company had revenue of $69.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.89 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 106.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that BP will post 6.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were given a dividend of $0.5196 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.7%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.49%.

About BP

BP p.l.c. is a global integrated energy company headquartered in London, England. Its operations span the energy value chain, including exploration and production of oil and natural gas, refining, fuel marketing, energy trading and transportation. BP also produces and markets lubricants through its Castrol brand and supplies fuels through retail networks operating under brands such as BP, Aral and ampm.

The company has operations and business relationships across multiple regions, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.