Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on BP (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) saw unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 41,181 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 48% compared to the average daily volume of 27,823 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its holdings in BP by 2.2% in 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 last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 23,325 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position 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 valued at $13,842,000 after buying an additional 5,150 shares during the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky raised its stake in BP by 3.8% during 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 worth $10,795,000 after acquiring an additional 12,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in BP by 9.9% in the third quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 233,776 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $7,338,000 after acquiring an additional 20,976 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on BP. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on BP from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $38.76.

BP Price Performance

Shares of BP stock traded down $0.31 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $31.14. The company had a trading volume of 6,388,044 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,582,181. 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 has a 12-month low of $27.82 and a 12-month high of $40.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $29.96 and a 200-day moving average of $31.58. The company has a market capitalization of $84.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a PEG ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. The business's revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.15 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

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.