Atlas Brown Inc. Buys 437 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Atlas Brown Inc. boosted its stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 37,338 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after buying an additional 437 shares during the quarter. Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings in BP were worth $1,104,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bank & Trust Co grew its holdings in BP by 404.8% during the fourth quarter. Bank & Trust Co now owns 2,120 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $63,000 after purchasing an additional 1,700 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of BP by 41.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,221 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the period. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new stake in BP in the 2nd quarter valued at $75,000. ORG Partners LLC lifted its holdings in BP by 32.5% during the 3rd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 2,533 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $80,000 after purchasing an additional 621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC bought a new position in BP during the third quarter worth $91,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on BP. BNP Paribas cut shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley lowered their price objective on BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 27th. Twelve equities research 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BP presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $39.89.

BP Price Performance

Shares of BP traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $31.34. The company had a trading volume of 9,890,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,018,618. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.44 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.03. The company has a market capitalization of $83.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.64. BP p.l.c. has a 1-year low of $27.82 and a 1-year high of $40.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.22.

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

BP Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 8th were issued a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.