BP Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the target of unusually large options trading on Monday. Traders acquired 29,247 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 51% compared to the typical daily volume of 19,376 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On BP

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in BP during the 1st quarter worth about $39,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in BP during the 3rd quarter valued at about $43,000. LRI Investments LLC increased its position in shares of BP by 76.2% during the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $44,000 after buying an additional 552 shares during the period. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BP in the second quarter worth about $46,000. Finally, Gill Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of BP by 53.2% in the second quarter. Gill Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,376 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on BP. Weiss Ratings upgraded BP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of BP from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Freedom Capital raised shares of BP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of BP from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.36.

BP Trading Up 3.8%

Shares of BP stock opened at $44.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $116.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.15. BP has a 52-week low of $32.72 and a 52-week high of $48.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.27. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.62.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.35. BP had a net margin of 2.49% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The firm had revenue of $69.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $57.89 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 106.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that BP will post 6.08 EPS for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.5196 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. BP’s payout ratio is presently 100.49%.

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.