Bank & Trust Co Acquires 1,700 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Bank & Trust Co lifted its stake in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 404.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,120 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in BP were worth $63,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 2.0% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 29,235 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,055,000 after purchasing an additional 571 shares during the period. 1ST Source Bank boosted its holdings in BP by 3.8% in the second quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 29,655 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,071,000 after acquiring an additional 1,098 shares in the last quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in shares of BP by 37.9% during the second quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 9,609 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $347,000 after acquiring an additional 2,640 shares during the last quarter. Argent Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of BP by 10.1% during the second quarter. Argent Trust Co now owns 13,571 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $490,000 after buying an additional 1,250 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc raised its stake in BP by 2.2% in the 2nd quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 212,800 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $7,682,000 after acquiring an additional 4,575 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on BP shares. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 27th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of BP from $33.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Scotiabank downgraded BP from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $36.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.89.

BP Trading Up 2.2 %

BP traded up $0.68 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $31.70. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,236,041 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,560,217. BP p.l.c. has a fifty-two week low of $27.82 and a fifty-two week high of $40.40. The business’s 50-day moving average is $29.32 and its 200-day moving average is $32.07. The stock has a market cap of $84.70 billion, a PE ratio of 33.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $52.05 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that BP p.l.c. will post 3.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th were paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.06%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 200.00%.

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.