BP p.l.c. $BP Shares Sold by Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd.

Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd. reduced its position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 89.1% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 45,313 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 371,459 shares during the quarter. Nan Shan Life Insurance Co. Ltd.’s holdings in BP were worth $1,674,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Financial Life Planners purchased a new stake in shares of BP during the first quarter worth $39,000. Triumph Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of BP in the third quarter worth about $43,000. LRI Investments LLC boosted its position in BP by 76.2% during the fourth quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,276 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 552 shares during the last quarter. WFA of San Diego LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Gill Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in BP by 53.2% in the 2nd quarter. Gill Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,376 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 478 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on BP. Wall Street Zen upgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, July 18th. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on BP from $42.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Freedom Capital raised BP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on BP from $54.00 to $48.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded BP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.36.

BP Stock Up 3.8%

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $44.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $116.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.62. BP p.l.c. has a 1 year low of $32.72 and a 1 year high of $48.27.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.87 by $0.35. The firm had revenue of $69.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.89 billion. BP had a return on equity of 16.63% and a net margin of 2.49%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 106.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that BP p.l.c. will post 6.08 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.5196 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 14th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.7%. This is a boost from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 100.49%.

BP Company Profile

BP plc is a British multinational integrated energy company headquartered in London. Originating in the early 20th century as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, BP has grown into one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, operating across exploration and production, refining and marketing, trading, and a range of low-carbon businesses.

The company’s core activities include upstream exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, midstream and trading operations, and downstream refining, marketing and supply of fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals.