BP p.l.c. (BP) To Go Ex-Dividend on August 14th

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, August 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th will be given a dividend of 0.5196 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, September 18th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 14th. This is a 4.1% increase from BP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

BP has increased its dividend by an average of 0.0%per year over the last three years. BP has a payout ratio of 69.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect BP to earn $4.12 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.05 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 49.8%.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $43.23 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.04. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $113.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.09, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 0.16. BP has a 52-week low of $32.72 and a 52-week high of $48.27.

BP (NYSE:BP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 3rd. The oil and gas exploration company reported $2.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.35. BP had a net margin of 2.49% and a return on equity of 16.63%. The company had revenue of $69.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $57.89 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. BP’s revenue was up 106.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that BP will post 6.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. UBS Group upgraded BP from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. BNP Paribas Exane set a $57.00 target price on shares of BP and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 17th. Argus raised BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $50.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of BP from $40.00 to $41.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of BP from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, BP has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.36.

About BP

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.