BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $53.00.

Several research analysts have commented on BHP shares. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of BHP Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com lowered BHP Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Clarkson Capital raised shares of BHP Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BHP. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of BHP Group by 58.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,294,562 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $112,043,000 after purchasing an additional 846,963 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of BHP Group by 1,898.9% in the 4th quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 707,405 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $34,543,000 after buying an additional 672,016 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of BHP Group in the fourth quarter valued at about $25,878,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of BHP Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $20,574,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in BHP Group by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,225,134 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,085,253,000 after acquiring an additional 280,258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 3.79% of the company’s stock.

BHP Group Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of BHP Group stock opened at $46.59 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $48.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.11. The company has a market capitalization of $118.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.59 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. BHP Group has a 12-month low of $39.73 and a 12-month high of $63.21.

BHP Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BHP Group’s payout ratio is 44.77%.

About BHP Group

BHP Group Limited operates as a resources company in Australia, Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, the rest of Asia, North America, South America, and internationally. The company operates through Copper, Iron Ore, and Coal segments. It engages in the mining of copper, uranium, gold, zinc, lead, molybdenum, silver, iron ore, cobalt, and metallurgical and energy coal.