BP (NYSE:BP) Cut to “Sell” at DZ Bank

DZ Bank lowered shares of BP (NYSE:BP) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on BP from $31.00 to $30.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Raymond James lifted their price target on BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. StockNews.com lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, BP has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.64.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE:BP opened at $34.48 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $30.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $31.36. BP has a 1-year low of $27.82 and a 1-year high of $40.40. 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 stock has a market cap of $92.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.12). BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. Research analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a $0.48 dividend. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. BP’s dividend payout ratio is 200.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new stake in BP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $5,089,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in BP by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 474,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,040,000 after buying an additional 110,019 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in BP by 217.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 107,282 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $3,171,000 after buying an additional 73,478 shares in the last quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc increased its position in BP by 16.6% in the 4th quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 272,527 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $8,056,000 after buying an additional 38,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Investment Consultants LLC bought a new stake in BP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $857,000. 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.