New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 14,897 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 1.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,403,216 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 14,897 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in BP were worth $49,674,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in BP. Versant Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of BP in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC raised its holdings in BP by 200.8% in the fourth quarter. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $56,000 after purchasing an additional 1,060 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BP during the fourth quarter valued at about $70,000. First Command Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BP in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $75,000. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of BP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $93,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James raised their price objective on BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. TD Securities upped their price target on shares of BP from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $38.60 to $42.30 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.72.

BP Price Performance

Shares of BP stock opened at $39.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.73, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $37.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.52. BP p.l.c. has a 12 month low of $33.52 and a 12 month high of $40.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.11. BP had a return on equity of 16.00% and a net margin of 7.15%. The firm had revenue of $52.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.59 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that BP p.l.c. will post 5.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were given a dividend of $0.4362 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.44%. BP’s payout ratio is presently 33.79%.

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.