Amova Asset Management Americas Inc. Raises Holdings in BP p.l.c. $BP

Amova Asset Management Americas Inc. boosted its stake in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 62.7% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 111,261 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 42,894 shares during the period. Amova Asset Management Americas Inc.’s holdings in BP were worth $5,231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of BP by 8.6% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 29,724 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,397,000 after acquiring an additional 2,359 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in shares of BP by 20.7% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 432,646 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $20,334,000 after acquiring an additional 74,243 shares during the last quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. increased its position in BP by 7.8% during the 1st quarter. Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. now owns 6,376 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $300,000 after purchasing an additional 464 shares in the last quarter. Archer Investment Corp raised its stake in BP by 20.5% in the 1st quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 21,323 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $1,002,000 after purchasing an additional 3,621 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its holdings in BP by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 142,920 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $6,717,000 after purchasing an additional 3,090 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on BP. Zacks Research downgraded shares of BP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 25th. BNP Paribas Exane set a $57.00 price objective on shares of BP and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 17th. UBS Group raised shares of BP from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Argus upgraded BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of BP in a report on Thursday, June 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.98.

BP Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of BP opened at $42.04 on Tuesday. BP p.l.c. has a fifty-two week low of $31.58 and a fifty-two week high of $48.27. The company’s fifty day moving average is $41.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $41.14. The firm has a market cap of $110.11 billion, a PE ratio of 35.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.17. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.24. The company had revenue of $52.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.50 billion. BP had a return on equity of 12.06% and a net margin of 1.62%.The firm’s revenue was up 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.53 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that BP p.l.c. will post 5.24 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th were issued a $0.4992 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 15th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.7%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 165.00%.

BP Profile

BP plc is a British multinational integrated energy company headquartered in London. Originating in the early 20th century as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, BP has grown into one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, operating across exploration and production, refining and marketing, trading, and a range of low-carbon businesses.

The company’s core activities include upstream exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, midstream and trading operations, and downstream refining, marketing and supply of fuels, lubricants and petrochemicals.