BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Given Consensus Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the nineteen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, four have assigned a buy recommendation and four have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $38.76.

Several research firms have issued reports on BP. Redburn Atlantic lowered shares of BP from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of BP from an "outperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of BP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Scotiabank cut BP from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th.

BP Price Performance

BP stock traded down $0.08 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $31.70. The company had a trading volume of 11,800,313 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,407,338. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $29.65 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The company has a market capitalization of $84.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a 1 year low of $27.82 and a 1 year high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.06%. BP's payout ratio is 200.00%.

Institutional Trading of BP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in BP by 83.3% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 53,360 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $1,577,000 after acquiring an additional 24,252 shares during the period. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC increased its holdings in shares of BP by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 29,165 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,860 shares in the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors lifted its stake in shares of BP by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 47,003 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $1,389,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares during the period. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. boosted its holdings in BP by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 129,215 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $3,820,000 after buying an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its position in BP by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 660,538 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $19,526,000 after buying an additional 14,436 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.