BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Short Interest Up 68.9% in April

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,950,000 shares, an increase of 68.9% from the March 31st total of 5,890,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 9,580,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days. Approximately 0.4% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on BP. Piper Sandler increased their target price on shares of BP from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Erste Group Bank raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $38.60 to $42.30 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BP has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.72.

Institutional Trading of BP

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in BP by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,245 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $469,000 after buying an additional 333 shares during the period. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of BP by 5.1% in the third quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 7,083 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the period. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. grew its position in shares of BP by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 20,715 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $733,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the period. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in shares of BP by 5.6% in the third quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 10,962 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 577 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of BP by 27.0% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,755 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $104,000 after purchasing an additional 586 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE BP opened at $39.47 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.52 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $36.52. BP has a 12-month low of $33.52 and a 12-month high of $40.84. The stock has a market cap of $111.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.75, a P/E/G ratio of 2.71 and a beta of 0.68.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.11. BP had a net margin of 7.15% and a return on equity of 16.00%. The firm had revenue of $52.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 24.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that BP will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $0.4362 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $1.74 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.42%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.79%.

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.