BP (NYSE:BP) Given New $30.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

BP (NYSE:BP) had its price objective trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $31.00 to $30.00 in a research note released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on BP. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Redburn Atlantic cut BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their price target on BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.76.

BP Stock Performance

BP stock opened at $31.31 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market cap of $83.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. BP has a 12-month low of $27.82 and a 12-month high of $40.40. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.87.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The firm had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BP will post 3.55 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were given a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.13%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 200.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of BP. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC lifted its stake in BP by 6.8% in the 4th quarter. Integrated Investment Consultants LLC now owns 29,165 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $862,000 after acquiring an additional 1,860 shares in the last quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors raised its stake in shares of BP by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Arkadios Wealth Advisors now owns 47,003 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,389,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares in the last quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. raised its stake in shares of BP by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 129,215 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $3,820,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC raised its stake in shares of BP by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 660,538 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $19,526,000 after purchasing an additional 14,436 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Winch Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of BP by 18.7% during the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 12,772 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $378,000 after purchasing an additional 2,011 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.