BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.44

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of 0.4362 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th.

BP has decreased its dividend by an average of 4.1% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. BP has a dividend payout ratio of 32.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BP to earn $5.56 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.74 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.3%.

BP Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE BP traded down $0.08 on Wednesday, hitting $37.50. The company had a trading volume of 6,890,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,614,263. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The business has a 50 day moving average of $37.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $105.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.34, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.67. BP has a 12-month low of $33.52 and a 12-month high of $40.84.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.06). The company had revenue of $48.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.65 billion. BP had a net margin of 7.15% and a return on equity of 16.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that BP will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on BP from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $38.60 to $42.30 in a report on Monday, March 4th. TD Securities boosted their price target on BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BP has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.88.

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.