Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC Cuts Position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC reduced its holdings in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 29.6% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,191 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 1,339 shares during the period. Bruce G. Allen Investments LLC’s holdings in BP were worth $108,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Asset Planning Inc acquired a new stake in BP in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its stake in shares of BP by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 465,242 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $13,753,000 after buying an additional 10,262 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its holdings in shares of BP by 30.1% during 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 during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc lifted its position in BP by 16.6% during the 4th quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 272,527 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $8,056,000 after acquiring an additional 38,751 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $588,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on BP. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of BP from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of BP from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on BP from $35.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $29.00 target price on BP and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded BP from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $26.50 price target for the company. in a report on Monday, May 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BP has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.28.

BP Price Performance

Shares of BP opened at $29.28 on Monday. BP p.l.c. has a 52 week low of $25.22 and a 52 week high of $37.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a market cap of $79.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 366.05, a PEG ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $28.74 and a 200-day moving average of $30.59.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.03). BP had a net margin of 0.20% and a return on equity of 10.96%. The business had revenue of $46.91 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.12 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that BP p.l.c. will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.56%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently -413.04%.

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.