BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Plans $0.48 Quarterly Dividend

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, October 29th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, December 20th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th.

BP has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. BP has a payout ratio of 46.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BP to earn $4.27 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 45.0%.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE BP traded down $0.34 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $29.02. The company had a trading volume of 21,959,554 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,425,827. BP has a fifty-two week low of $29.00 and a fifty-two week high of $40.40. The firm has a market cap of $78.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.83.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. BP had a return on equity of 13.83% and a net margin of 3.60%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. Equities analysts predict that BP will post 3.76 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on BP. Argus raised shares of BP to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays raised BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on BP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. BNP Paribas lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BP presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.73.

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.