Short Interest in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) Drops By 19.0%

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,600,000 shares, a decrease of 19.0% from the January 31st total of 19,270,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,170,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.4 days. Currently, 0.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of BP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 129,215 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $3,820,000 after acquiring an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its stake in shares of BP by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 11,839 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $344,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the last quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. raised its stake in shares of BP by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 37,338 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,104,000 after buying an additional 437 shares during the last quarter. Horizon Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of BP by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Horizon Investments LLC now owns 19,753 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $584,000 after buying an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised 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 valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. DZ Bank downgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com lowered BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Wolfe Research set a $50.00 price target on shares of BP in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of BP from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have issued a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.76.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP traded down $0.14 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $31.67. 10,462,032 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,196,426. The stock has a market capitalization of $84.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 396.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a quick ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $31.88 and a 200-day moving average price of $31.34. BP has a 12-month low of $27.82 and a 12-month high of $40.40.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.12). BP had a net margin of 0.20% and a return on equity of 10.96%. Equities analysts anticipate that BP will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.06%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 21st. BP’s payout ratio is 2,375.00%.

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.