BP (NYSE:BP) Shares Pass Above 200 Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)’s share price passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $33.70 and traded as high as $34.19. BP shares last traded at $33.26, with a volume of 15,223,241 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BP has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on BP from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of BP in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Santander raised shares of BP to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Monday. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their target price on shares of BP from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $43.23.

BP Trading Down 3.5%

The company has a 50 day moving average of $35.29 and a 200 day moving average of $33.70. The firm has a market cap of $86.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.35, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a quick ratio of 0.89 and a current ratio of 1.19.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 4th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.13. BP had a net margin of 0.79% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The firm had revenue of $48.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $43.76 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that BP p.l.c. will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.4992 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This is a positive change from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.49. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.0%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 341.38%.

Institutional Trading of BP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ethic Inc. grew its stake in BP by 23.4% in the 1st quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 14,554 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $492,000 after buying an additional 2,762 shares during the last quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of BP by 2.5% in the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 358,800 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $12,124,000 after buying an additional 8,700 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new stake in BP during the first quarter worth about $261,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in BP by 8.0% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 82,628 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $2,792,000 after acquiring an additional 6,110 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great Lakes Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BP by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Great Lakes Advisors LLC now owns 8,022 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $271,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.