TD Cowen Downgrades BP (NYSE:BP) to Hold

BP (NYSE:BP) was downgraded by investment analysts at TD Cowen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Wednesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $40.00 target price on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 16.92% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on BP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of BP from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Raymond James increased their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. DZ Bank cut shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.48.

BP Price Performance

NYSE:BP opened at $34.21 on Wednesday. BP has a one year low of $27.82 and a one year high of $40.40. The company has a market cap of $91.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 427.70, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $32.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.97.

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

Institutional Trading of BP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of BP by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 474,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $14,040,000 after buying an additional 110,019 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of BP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $588,000. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of BP by 83.3% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 53,360 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,577,000 after buying an additional 24,252 shares during the period. Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its position in shares of BP by 16.6% during the 4th quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 272,527 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $8,056,000 after buying an additional 38,751 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its position in shares of BP by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC now owns 660,538 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $19,526,000 after buying an additional 14,436 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.