Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV Purchases 1,046 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV grew its position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 12.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 9,597 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,046 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV’s holdings in BP were worth $301,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new stake in BP during the first quarter valued at $31,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of BP in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Quent Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BP in the second quarter worth about $38,000. Independence Bank of Kentucky grew its holdings in BP by 85.7% during the 2nd quarter. Independence Bank of Kentucky now owns 1,300 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO grew its holdings in BP by 29.1% during the 2nd quarter. Indiana Trust & Investment Management CO now owns 2,034 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 459 shares in the last quarter. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BNP Paribas lowered shares of BP from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Barclays raised shares of BP to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.73.

BP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $29.05 on Friday. BP p.l.c. has a twelve month low of $27.82 and a twelve month high of $40.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66. The company has a market capitalization of $78.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.65. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $31.26 and a 200-day simple moving average of $34.12.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $47.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $52.05 billion. BP had a return on equity of 12.91% and a net margin of 1.36%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 3.68 earnings per share for the current year.

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 20th. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. BP’s payout ratio is 200.00%.

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.