Davidson Trust Co. Makes New $399,000 Investment in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Davidson Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 11,801 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $399,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in BP by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 940,786 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $27,810,000 after purchasing an additional 38,759 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of BP by 30.1% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 474,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,040,000 after buying an additional 110,019 shares during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc raised its stake in BP by 0.8% in the first quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 274,735 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $9,283,000 after buying an additional 2,208 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in BP by 5,751.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 207,606 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $7,015,000 after buying an additional 204,058 shares during the period. Finally, Meritage Portfolio Management boosted its position in BP by 54.7% during the 1st quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 163,147 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $5,513,000 after acquiring an additional 57,719 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $30.90 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $29.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.74. BP p.l.c. has a 52-week low of $25.22 and a 52-week high of $37.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 1.22. The company has a market cap of $83.04 billion, a PE ratio of -67.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.54.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.53 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $46.91 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $40.12 billion. BP had a negative net margin of 0.62% and a positive return on equity of 9.51%. The business’s revenue was down 4.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, May 16th were given a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.21%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -413.04%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on BP shares. UBS Group cut BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered BP from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and set a $26.50 price objective for the company. in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of BP from $27.00 to $32.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. TD Securities reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $36.00 price target (down from $40.00) on shares of BP in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on shares of BP from $34.00 to $30.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fifteen have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.72.

BP 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.