BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Short Interest Update

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the recipient of a large drop in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,860,000 shares, a drop of 10.7% from the May 31st total of 6,560,000 shares. Currently, 0.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 8,900,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.7 days.

Institutional Trading of BP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in BP in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $123,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in BP by 27.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,755 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $104,000 after acquiring an additional 586 shares during the last quarter. PSquared Asset Management AG acquired a new position in BP in the 4th quarter valued at $50,315,000. OLD Mission Capital LLC raised its holdings in BP by 145.5% in the 4th quarter. OLD Mission Capital LLC now owns 656,293 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $23,233,000 after acquiring an additional 388,931 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in BP by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 487,648 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $17,263,000 after acquiring an additional 59,379 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $36.97. The company had a trading volume of 3,536,633 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,759,398. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.59, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.65. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $36.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $36.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. BP has a 52-week low of $33.52 and a 52-week high of $40.84.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.03 by ($0.06). BP had a return on equity of 13.49% and a net margin of 4.51%. The business had revenue of $48.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.66 EPS. BP’s revenue was down 13.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that BP will post 4.72 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a $0.4362 dividend. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. BP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com cut BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a report on Friday, June 14th. Piper Sandler increased their target price on BP from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Scotiabank increased their target price on BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, TD Securities upped their price target on BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, BP presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.88.

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.