BP (NYSE:BP) Hits New 52-Week Low – Here’s Why

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) reached a new 52-week low on Friday . The stock traded as low as $28.96 and last traded at $29.03, with a volume of 2852191 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $30.29.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on BP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Hsbc Global Res raised BP to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. Barclays raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.73.

BP Stock Performance

The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.48. The stock has a market cap of $78.53 billion, a PE ratio of 31.91, a P/E/G ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. BP’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that BP p.l.c. will post 3.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.63%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. BP’s payout ratio is 200.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Strategic Blueprint LLC increased its stake in BP by 2.6% during the second quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 13,200 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $477,000 after purchasing an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in BP by 12.4% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $112,000 after purchasing an additional 342 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its stake in BP by 9.0% during the third quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 4,549 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $143,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. SouthState Corp increased its stake in BP by 0.3% during the second quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 128,246 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $4,630,000 after purchasing an additional 393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in BP by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,001 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $289,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BP Company Profile

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.