BP (NYSE:BP) Lowered to “Neutral” at Redburn Atlantic

Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of BP (NYSE:BP) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report report published on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on BP. Scotiabank reduced their price target on BP from $47.00 to $42.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 12th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BP from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Piper Sandler reissued a neutral rating and set a $43.00 price target on shares of BP in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of BP from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of BP from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $44.23.

BP Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of BP stock opened at $30.78 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. BP has a 12-month low of $30.52 and a 12-month high of $40.84. The company has a market cap of $8.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.71, a PEG ratio of 4.27 and a beta of 0.64. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. BP’s revenue was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.89 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.24%. BP’s payout ratio is currently 59.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in BP in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new stake in BP during the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in BP in the second quarter worth approximately $38,000. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of BP by 576.0% during the 4th quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,129 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 962 shares during the period. Finally, Independence Bank of Kentucky increased its stake in shares of BP by 85.7% in the 2nd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 1,300 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.