BP (NYSE:BP) Upgraded at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of BP (NYSE:BP) to a hold rating in a research note published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on BP. BNP Paribas raised shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, September 15th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of BP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. Piper Sandler raised their price target on shares of BP from $35.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.41.

BP Price Performance

Shares of BP opened at $33.12 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.12 billion, a PE ratio of 157.74, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.54. The company’s 50-day moving average is $34.36 and its 200-day moving average is $31.55. BP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $35.88. 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 (NYSE:BP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.22. The company had revenue of $46.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $42.88 billion. BP had a net margin of 0.29% and a return on equity of 9.08%. The company’s revenue was down 1.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that BP will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 15th were issued a $0.4942 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 15th. This represents a $1.98 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.0%. This is an increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.48. BP’s payout ratio is 942.86%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Heartwood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in BP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of BP by 2,250.0% in the 1st quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 940 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of BP by 178.0% in the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 1,034 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 662 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Acima Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. 11.01% of the stock is 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.