Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on BP (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 50,785 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 82% compared to the average daily volume of 27,878 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on BP. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, May 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of BP from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. BNP Paribas Exane set a $57.00 target price on shares of BP and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. UBS Group upgraded shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of BP in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, BP currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.14.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of BP during the third quarter valued at about $1,352,000. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in BP by 6.0% in the 4th quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 392,400 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $13,628,000 after buying an additional 22,100 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new stake in BP during the fourth quarter worth $67,890,000. Milford Funds Ltd. purchased a new position in BP in the fourth quarter worth $8,335,000. Finally, Legacy Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in BP in the 3rd quarter valued at $793,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Trading Down 3.6%

NYSE:BP traded down $1.41 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $37.92. 12,472,416 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,876,163. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. BP has a fifty-two week low of $29.58 and a fifty-two week high of $48.27. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $43.95 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $99.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.60, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 0.14.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.00 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $52.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.50 billion. BP had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 1.62%.The business’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.53 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that BP will post 5.37 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 26th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.4992 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 164.17%.

BP Company Profile

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.