Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Purchases 65,425 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC grew its position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 15.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 500,704 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after buying an additional 65,425 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in BP were worth $17,725,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BKM Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of BP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $123,000. TIAA Trust National Association acquired a new stake in BP in the third quarter valued at $1,122,000. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the fourth quarter valued at $70,000. Monograph Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BP in the third quarter valued at $1,163,000. Finally, Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in BP during the 4th quarter worth about $290,000. Institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Scotiabank increased their price target on BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. Erste Group Bank raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of BP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of BP from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of BP from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.72.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP opened at $38.79 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $37.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.49. BP p.l.c. has a 12-month low of $33.52 and a 12-month high of $40.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $109.24 billion, a PE ratio of 7.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.96 by $0.11. BP had a return on equity of 16.00% and a net margin of 7.15%. The firm had revenue of $52.14 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $53.14 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.59 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that BP p.l.c. will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 16th were issued a dividend of $0.4362 per share. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 15th. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.79%.

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.