BP (NYSE:BP) Price Target Raised to $35.00

BP (NYSE:BP - Free Report) had its price target boosted by Piper Sandler from $32.00 to $35.00 in a research report report published on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the oil and gas exploration company's stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on BP. Scotiabank reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and set a $34.00 target price (up from $30.00) on shares of BP in a report on Friday, July 11th. TD Cowen lowered shares of BP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and set a $40.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $29.00 price target on shares of BP and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of BP from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and set a $26.50 target price for the company. in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of BP from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BP has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $35.50.

BP Stock Down 0.2%

BP stock traded down $0.08 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $32.01. The stock had a trading volume of 6,224,060 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,239,524. BP has a one year low of $25.22 and a one year high of $35.83. The company's 50 day moving average is $30.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $30.93. The company has a market capitalization of $86.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -69.59, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.54. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $46.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $40.12 billion. BP had a negative net margin of 0.62% and a positive return on equity of 9.51%. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that BP will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th were given a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.00%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. BP's payout ratio is -413.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in BP. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of BP by 486.9% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,787,644 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $94,195,000 after purchasing an additional 2,312,687 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of BP by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 940,786 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $27,810,000 after purchasing an additional 38,759 shares during the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS lifted its stake in BP by 2.7% in the 1st quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 477,764 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $16,144,000 after acquiring an additional 12,522 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC lifted its stake in BP by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 465,269 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $13,926,000 after acquiring an additional 19,279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in BP by 30.2% in the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 444,530 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock worth $15,020,000 after acquiring an additional 103,100 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.