BP (NYSE:BP) Rating Lowered to Hold at StockNews.com

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued on Thursday.

BP has been the subject of several other reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of BP to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. UBS Group raised shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. HSBC cut BP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on BP from $39.00 to $35.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered BP from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research report on Monday, July 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.98.

BP Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of BP stock traded up $0.39 on Thursday, hitting $31.32. The company had a trading volume of 8,122,683 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,371,673. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $32.68 and a 200-day moving average of $35.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. BP has a twelve month low of $30.52 and a twelve month high of $40.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $86.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.82, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.92 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $55.82 billion. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The company's revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.89 EPS. Research analysts predict that BP will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of BP

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BP. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,755 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in BP in the second quarter valued at about $2,620,000. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in BP during the first quarter worth about $32,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS boosted its stake in shares of BP by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 431,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $15,583,000 after purchasing an additional 19,140 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new stake in shares of BP during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $106,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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