Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $2.14 Million Position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lowered its stake in shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 72,545 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 11,261 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in BP were worth $2,144,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. lifted its stake in shares of BP by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 129,215 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $3,820,000 after purchasing an additional 358 shares during the last quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BP by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. now owns 4,549 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $143,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the period. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BP by 3.8% during the 3rd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 11,459 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $360,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the period. Atlas Brown Inc. increased its holdings in shares of BP by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Atlas Brown Inc. now owns 37,338 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 437 shares during the period. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of BP by 41.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,221 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 11.01% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of BP from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.64.

BP Price Performance

BP opened at $34.48 on Friday. BP p.l.c. has a one year low of $27.82 and a one year high of $40.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $30.68 and its 200-day simple moving average is $31.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $92.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.12). BP had a net margin of 1.36% and a return on equity of 12.91%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that BP p.l.c. will post 3.35 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

BP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.57%. BP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 200.00%.

BP 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.