Integrated Investment Consultants LLC Makes New $857,000 Investment in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new position in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 27,305 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $857,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its stake in BP by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 646,102 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $20,281,000 after buying an additional 16,534 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its holdings in BP by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 454,980 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $14,282,000 after acquiring an additional 23,325 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in BP by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 429,773 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $15,515,000 after acquiring an additional 13,984 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC grew its holdings in BP by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 360,050 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $12,998,000 after acquiring an additional 7,850 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in BP by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 233,776 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $7,338,000 after acquiring an additional 20,976 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on BP shares. Barclays upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Argus upgraded shares of BP to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of BP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $42.73.

BP Price Performance

BP opened at $29.50 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.22. BP p.l.c. has a 1 year low of $27.82 and a 1 year high of $40.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.98 billion, a PE ratio of 31.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.65.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $52.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 3.67 EPS for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.51%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 200.00%.

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.