BP p.l.c. $BP Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lowered its holdings in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 14.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,034,525 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 175,600 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s holdings in BP were worth $38,226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Financial Life Planners acquired a new position in shares of BP in the first quarter worth $39,000. Triumph Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the third quarter valued at $43,000. WFA of San Diego LLC purchased a new position in BP in the second quarter valued at $46,000. Gill Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in BP by 53.2% during the 2nd quarter. Gill Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,376 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Community Bank N.A. increased its holdings in BP by 237.0% during the 2nd quarter. Community Bank N.A. now owns 1,685 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $62,000 after purchasing an additional 1,185 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho set a $53.00 price objective on BP in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of BP in a report on Friday, September 4th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of BP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of BP from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have given a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BP presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.59.

BP Trading Up 0.1%

BP opened at $46.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.27. BP p.l.c. has a one year low of $32.72 and a one year high of $48.27. The company has a market cap of $120.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.50, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.15. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.75 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.97.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $69.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $57.89 billion. BP had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 2.49%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 106.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a $0.5196 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.49%.

BP Profile

BP p.l.c. is a global integrated energy company headquartered in London, England. Its operations span the energy value chain, including exploration and production of oil and natural gas, refining, fuel marketing, energy trading and transportation. BP also produces and markets lubricants through its Castrol brand and supplies fuels through retail networks operating under brands such as BP, Aral and ampm.

The company has operations and business relationships across multiple regions, including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.