BP (NYSE:BP) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Barclays

BP (NYSE:BP) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Barclays to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Wednesday, Zacks.com reports.

BP has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley downgraded BP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $49.90 to $41.50 in a research note on Monday, July 15th. TD Securities increased their price objective on BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 8th. Raymond James increased their price objective on BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on BP from $41.00 to $39.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.23.

BP Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $34.48 on Wednesday. BP has a 12 month low of $33.52 and a 12 month high of $40.84. The company has a market cap of $95.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $36.55.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.00 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.92 by $0.08. BP had a return on equity of 13.67% and a net margin of 3.60%. The business had revenue of $47.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $55.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.89 earnings per share. BP’s revenue was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that BP will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of BP

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Strategic Blueprint LLC grew its holdings in BP by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 13,200 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $477,000 after buying an additional 330 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 2.6% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,245 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $469,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 12.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $112,000 after acquiring an additional 342 shares during the period. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of BP by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 20,715 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $733,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the period. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,001 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $289,000 after acquiring an additional 408 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

About BP

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.