Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of BP Call Options (NYSE:BP)

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 66,663 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 44% compared to the average daily volume of 46,280 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On BP

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in BP by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 474,957 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $14,040,000 after buying an additional 110,019 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in BP during the 4th quarter worth $588,000. ARK & TLK Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of BP in the 4th quarter valued at about $434,000. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of BP by 83.3% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 53,360 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,577,000 after acquiring an additional 24,252 shares during the period. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc grew its position in 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 purchasing an additional 38,751 shares during the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on BP shares. Wolfe Research set a $50.00 price target on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. DZ Bank lowered BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.73.

BP Trading Up 4.1 %

Shares of BP stock opened at $29.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $30.60. The stock has a market cap of $80.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 372.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.51. BP has a 1-year low of $25.22 and a 1-year high of $38.16.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.53 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.03). BP had a net margin of 0.20% and a return on equity of 10.96%. The firm had revenue of $46.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $40.12 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that BP will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 16th will be issued a $0.48 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 16th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.45%. BP’s dividend payout ratio is currently -413.04%.

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.