Wells Fargo & Company Increases BP (NYSE:BP) Price Target to $42.00

BP (NYSE:BP) had its price target boosted by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $38.00 to $42.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the oil and gas exploration company’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 6.50% from the company’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on BP. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of BP from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of BP from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. TD Securities raised their target price on BP from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $38.60 to $42.30 in a report on Monday, March 4th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $42.88.

BP Stock Performance

Shares of BP opened at $39.44 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.91 and its 200-day simple moving average is $36.49. BP has a 12-month low of $33.52 and a 12-month high of $40.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. The firm has a market cap of $111.66 billion, a PE ratio of 7.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.68.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.11. BP had a net margin of 7.15% and a return on equity of 16.00%. 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 firm posted $1.59 EPS. BP’s quarterly revenue was down 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that BP will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BP. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in BP by 202.7% in the 1st quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,921 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $174,000 after purchasing an additional 3,965 shares in the last quarter. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in BP in the 1st quarter valued at about $338,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL purchased a new position in BP in the 1st quarter valued at about $343,000. Cowa LLC lifted its holdings in BP by 10,274.3% in the 1st quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 2,070,297 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 2,050,341 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV purchased a new position in BP in the 1st quarter valued at about $327,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

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.