Wells Fargo & Company Cuts BP (NYSE:BP) Price Target to $33.00

BP (NYSE:BP - Free Report) had its target price reduced by Wells Fargo & Company from $35.00 to $33.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the oil and gas exploration company's stock.

BP has been the topic of several other research reports. Scotiabank lowered BP from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and cut their target price for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group upgraded shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Argus raised BP to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.73.

BP Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE BP traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $29.02. The company's stock had a trading volume of 21,959,554 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,425,827. BP has a one year low of $29.00 and a one year high of $40.40. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $32.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $78.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.62%. BP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 74.80%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of BP by 9.0% in the third quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 4,549 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $143,000 after acquiring an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased 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 worth $20,281,000 after purchasing an additional 16,534 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC raised its stake in shares of BP by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fiduciary Alliance LLC now owns 18,683 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,900 shares in the last quarter. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of BP by 32.5% in the third quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,533 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 621 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in BP by 15.9% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 54,252 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $1,703,000 after buying an additional 7,444 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.