BP (NYSE:BP) Price Target Cut to $33.00 by Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company

BP (NYSE:BP) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $35.00 to $33.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of BP to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 8th. HSBC downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Royal Bank of Canada cut BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. Finally, UBS Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.73.

BP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $29.02 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. BP has a 1 year low of $29.00 and a 1 year high of $40.40. The company’s 50-day moving average is $32.16 and its 200 day moving average is $34.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $78.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The firm had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that BP will post 3.76 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.62%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 74.80%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its holdings in shares of BP by 2.6% in the third quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 646,102 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $20,281,000 after acquiring an additional 16,534 shares during the period. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS increased its position in shares of BP by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 431,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $15,583,000 after purchasing an additional 19,140 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BP by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 429,773 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $15,515,000 after purchasing an additional 13,984 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 2.2% in the second quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 360,050 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $12,998,000 after buying an additional 7,850 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in BP by 2.4% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 250,659 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $9,445,000 after buying an additional 5,904 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.