Anchor Investment Management LLC Acquires 1,154 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Anchor Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 58.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,120 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,154 shares during the period. Anchor Investment Management LLC’s holdings in BP were worth $98,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. grew its position in BP by 147.9% in the second quarter. Sanibel Captiva Trust Company Inc. now owns 43,063 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,555,000 after acquiring an additional 25,690 shares in the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 30.6% during the 2nd quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 17,992 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $650,000 after purchasing an additional 4,215 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. raised its holdings in BP by 20.3% during the 2nd quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 49,090 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,772,000 after buying an additional 8,269 shares during the period. Independence Bank of Kentucky boosted its stake in BP by 85.7% during the second quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 1,300 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 600 shares during the period. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in BP by 3.4% during the second quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 429,773 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $15,515,000 after acquiring an additional 13,984 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on BP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Scotiabank downgraded BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. BNP Paribas cut BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.48.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP stock opened at $29.98 on Friday. BP p.l.c. has a 12 month low of $27.82 and a 12 month high of $40.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $30.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.86. The firm has a market cap of $80.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.15 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 6.40%. BP’s dividend payout ratio 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.