BP (NYSE:BP) Cut to Sector Perform at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of BP (NYSE:BP) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports.

BP has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wolfe Research began coverage on shares of BP in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They issued an outperform rating and a $57.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of BP in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Raymond James upped their target price on shares of BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. UBS Group raised shares of BP to a strong-buy rating in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Argus raised shares of BP to a hold rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $44.23.

BP Stock Up 0.7 %

NYSE BP traded up $0.24 on Wednesday, reaching $33.26. The company had a trading volume of 5,442,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,610,193. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.24. BP has a 1-year low of $32.51 and a 1-year high of $40.84. The company’s fifty day moving average is $35.29 and its 200-day moving average is $36.52.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a net margin of 3.60% and a return on equity of 13.83%. The firm had revenue of $47.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $55.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.89 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that BP will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 20th. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.44. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.77%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 59.56%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. PSquared Asset Management AG acquired a new stake in BP in the fourth quarter worth $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC grew its holdings in BP by 145.5% in the fourth quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $23,233,000 after purchasing an additional 388,931 shares during the period. Beaumont Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the first quarter worth $6,682,000. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in BP by 26.7% in the second quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 629,568 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $22,727,000 after purchasing an additional 132,750 shares during the period. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the second quarter worth $2,620,000. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.