BP p.l.c. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.48 (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 29th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th.

BP has decreased its dividend by an average of 4.1% per year over the last three years. BP has a payout ratio of 46.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BP to earn $4.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.0%.

BP Stock Performance

BP stock opened at $29.02 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $32.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.79. BP has a 52-week low of $29.00 and a 52-week high of $40.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $78.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.42, a P/E/G ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The firm had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $43.00 target price on shares of BP in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Scotiabank lowered BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Argus upgraded BP to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group upgraded BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, HSBC lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.73.

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.