Navellier & Associates Inc. Takes Position in BP p.l.c. $BP

Navellier & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 87,723 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,241,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in BP by 114.6% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 12,721 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $470,000 after buying an additional 99,656 shares in the last quarter. Kahn Brothers Group Inc. bought a new position in BP in the second quarter valued at about $23,094,000. First Bancorp Inc ME acquired a new stake in BP in the second quarter worth about $105,000. Ancora Advisors LLC acquired a new position in BP during the 2nd quarter valued at about $147,000. Finally, Foster & Motley Inc. grew its position in shares of BP by 52.7% during the 2nd quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 21,619 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $799,000 after buying an additional 7,462 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BP Stock Down 0.5%

BP stock opened at $42.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.55, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.16. BP p.l.c. has a fifty-two week low of $32.72 and a fifty-two week high of $48.27. The business has a 50-day moving average of $41.38 and a 200-day moving average of $42.52.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.35. The business had revenue of $69.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.89 billion. BP had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 2.49%.BP’s revenue for the quarter was up 106.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that BP p.l.c. will post 6.04 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 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a $0.5196 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. BP’s dividend payout ratio is 100.49%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on BP from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Mizuho set a $53.00 target price on BP in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of BP from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of BP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.36.

About BP

BP plc is a British multinational integrated energy company headquartered in London. Originating in the early 20th century as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, BP has grown into one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, operating across exploration and production, refining and marketing, trading, and a range of low-carbon businesses.

The company’s core activities include upstream exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, midstream and trading operations, and downstream refining, marketing and supply of fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals.