BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.44

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of 0.4362 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.74 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th.

BP has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 3 years. BP has a payout ratio of 32.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect BP to earn $5.56 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.74 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 31.3%.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE BP traded down $0.08 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $37.50. 6,890,211 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,614,263. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.34, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.21. The business has a 50 day moving average of $37.97 and a 200-day moving average of $36.45. BP has a 12-month low of $33.52 and a 12-month 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 16.00% and a net margin of 7.15%. The company had revenue of $48.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $53.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.66 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that BP will post 5.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on BP shares. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of BP from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Erste Group Bank raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $38.60 to $42.30 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price objective on BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, BP has a consensus 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.