BP p.l.c. (BP) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 15th

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, April 28th. Investors of record on Friday, May 15th will be given a dividend of 0.4992 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, June 26th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 15th.

BP has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years. BP has a payout ratio of 66.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect BP to earn $4.09 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.97 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 48.2%.

BP Stock Performance

NYSE:BP opened at $44.42 on Wednesday. BP has a 12-month low of $28.41 and a 12-month high of $48.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $116.32 billion, a PE ratio of 37.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.18. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $44.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.15.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.00 by $0.24. BP had a net margin of 1.62% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The firm had revenue of $52.26 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $48.50 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.53 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that BP will post 5.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on BP. HSBC raised shares of BP from a “reduce” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $35.10 to $45.30 in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Freedom Capital lowered shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 12th. Zacks Research raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Argus raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday. Finally, Melius Research lowered shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “sell” rating and set a $31.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, BP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $44.82.

BP Company 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.