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

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

BP has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 3 consecutive years. BP has a payout ratio of 32.5% meaning 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 Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:BP opened at $37.53 on Thursday. BP has a 12 month low of $33.52 and a 12 month high of $40.84. The company has a quick ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $37.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $36.45. The firm has a market cap of $105.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.37, a PEG ratio of 2.65 and a beta of 0.67.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.03 by ($0.06). The business had revenue of $48.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.65 billion. BP had a net margin of 7.15% and a return on equity of 16.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.66 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that BP will post 5.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on BP shares. Erste Group Bank raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TD Securities raised their target price on shares of BP from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $38.60 to $42.30 in a research report on Monday, March 4th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of BP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.88.

About BP

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.