BP Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 41,181 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 48% compared to the average volume of 27,823 call options.

BP Stock Down 1.0 %

BP stock opened at $31.14 on Wednesday. BP has a fifty-two week low of $27.82 and a fifty-two week high of $40.40. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $29.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.22. The company has a market capitalization of $84.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The firm 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. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that BP will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BP. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. grew its stake in shares of BP by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 129,215 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $3,820,000 after buying an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of BP by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 4,549 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $143,000 after buying an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of BP by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 11,459 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. grew its stake in shares of BP by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 37,338 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,104,000 after buying an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of BP by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,533 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 621 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently commented on BP shares. Scotiabank downgraded BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a report on Thursday, October 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $38.76.

About BP

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.