BP (NYSE:BP) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of BP (NYSE:BP) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on BP. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Scotiabank lowered shares of BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic cut BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on BP from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $41.10.

BP Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:BP opened at $28.96 on Friday. BP has a twelve month low of $27.82 and a twelve month high of $40.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $77.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50 day moving average of $29.49 and a 200-day moving average of $32.29.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The business had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.63%. BP’s payout ratio is 200.00%.

Institutional Trading of BP

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC boosted its position in shares of 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 valued at $20,281,000 after acquiring an additional 16,534 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its holdings in BP by 5.4% during the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 454,980 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,282,000 after purchasing an additional 23,325 shares in the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors raised its holdings in shares of BP by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 440,973 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $13,842,000 after buying an additional 5,150 shares in the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 7,850 shares during the period. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky boosted its stake in BP by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 343,880 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $10,795,000 after buying an additional 12,700 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.