BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Shares Sold by Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC

Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC lessened its stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP - Free Report) by 98.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,900 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock after selling 163,478 shares during the quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC's holdings in BP were worth $91,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its holdings in shares of BP by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 9,597 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $301,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046 shares in the last quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management raised its position in BP by 1.4% during the third quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 107,512 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $3,375,000 after acquiring an additional 1,468 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS raised its position 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 worth $14,282,000 after acquiring an additional 23,325 shares in the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. raised 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 purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC increased its position in BP by 2.6% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 16,534 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on BP shares. Barclays upgraded shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Scotiabank lowered shares of BP from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. HSBC lowered shares of BP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of BP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, UBS Group raised shares of BP to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $42.73.

BP Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of BP stock traded up $0.49 on Wednesday, hitting $28.65. The stock had a trading volume of 9,386,475 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,506,466. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $77.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.65. BP p.l.c. has a 1 year low of $27.82 and a 1 year high of $40.40. The company's 50 day moving average price is $31.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.15.

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 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. BP's revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that BP p.l.c. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be given 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 6.70%. BP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 200.00%.

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.