Cullen Investment Group LTD. Invests $201,000 in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. purchased a new position in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 5,665 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its position in BP by 202.7% during the first quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 5,921 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $174,000 after buying an additional 3,965 shares during the period. SS&H Financial Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in BP during the first quarter worth about $338,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the first quarter valued at approximately $343,000. Cowa LLC grew its position in shares of BP by 10,274.3% in the first quarter. Cowa LLC now owns 2,070,297 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $609,000 after purchasing an additional 2,050,341 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV acquired a new stake in shares of BP in the first quarter valued at approximately $327,000. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

BP Price Performance

BP opened at $38.63 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $108.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.59, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. BP p.l.c. has a twelve month low of $33.52 and a twelve month high of $40.84. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $37.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $36.45.

BP (NYSE:BP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 6th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.96 by $0.11. BP had a net margin of 7.15% and a return on equity of 16.00%. The company had revenue of $52.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.14 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.59 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 24.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that BP p.l.c. will post 4.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

BP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 16th were given a $0.4362 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 15th. This represents a $1.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.52%. BP’s payout ratio is currently 33.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BP has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of BP from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. TD Securities increased their price target on shares of BP from $41.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Raymond James increased their price target on shares of BP from $42.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of BP from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Finally, Erste Group Bank raised shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $43.22.

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.