BP (NYSE:BP) Earns Buy Rating from Analysts at Melius

Key Points

• Melius has initiated coverage on BP, giving the stock a buy rating with a price target of $66.00, indicating a potential upside of 95.17% from its previous close.
• BP's recent quarterly earnings exceeded expectations, reporting $0.90 EPS compared to a predicted $0.68, with revenue of $46.63 billion against an expected $42.88 billion.
• The consensus rating for BP is "Hold" with an average price target of $39.35, reflecting mixed analyst sentiments with various ratings from "Strong Buy" to "Sell."

Melius assumed coverage on shares of BP (NYSE:BP - Free Report) in a research report report published on Wednesday, MarketBeat reports. The firm issued a buy rating and a $66.00 price target on the oil and gas exploration company's stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on BP. Scotiabank upgraded BP from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and set a $42.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on BP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. Berenberg Bank upgraded BP from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, August 7th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $29.00 price objective on BP and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on BP from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, June 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BP presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $41.77.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP traded up $0.1580 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $34.8980. 2,322,153 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,996,858. The firm has a market capitalization of $92.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 166.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.92. BP has a twelve month low of $25.22 and a twelve month high of $35.54. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $32.23 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.31.

BP (NYSE:BP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.68 by $0.22. The firm had revenue of $46.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.88 billion. BP had a return on equity of 9.08% and a net margin of 0.29%.BP's revenue was down 1.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.00 earnings per share. Analysts predict that BP will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4942 per share. This is a boost from BP's previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. This represents a $1.98 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 15th. BP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 942.86%.

Institutional Trading of BP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Anchor Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in BP by 60.7% in the 2nd quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 8,134 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $243,000 after buying an additional 3,072 shares in the last quarter. Rexford Capital Inc. acquired a new stake in BP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $209,000. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new position in shares of BP during the second quarter valued at $46,000. IHT Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of BP by 3.3% during the second quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,513 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $375,000 after acquiring an additional 398 shares during the period. Finally, Bollard Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of BP by 12.7% during the second quarter. Bollard Group LLC now owns 337,724 shares of the oil and gas exploration company's stock valued at $10,108,000 after acquiring an additional 37,974 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by 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.