Salomon & Ludwin LLC Sells 500 Shares of BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP)

Salomon & Ludwin LLC lowered its position in BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) by 18.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,260 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Salomon & Ludwin LLC’s holdings in BP were worth $67,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BP. ST Germain D J Co. Inc. grew its position in BP by 9.0% in the third 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 acquiring an additional 377 shares in the last quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its position in BP by 5.4% in the third quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 454,980 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $14,282,000 after acquiring an additional 23,325 shares in the last quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management boosted its position in BP by 1.4% during the third quarter. Meritage Portfolio Management now owns 107,512 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $3,375,000 after buying an additional 1,468 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV boosted its position in BP by 12.2% during the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 9,597 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $301,000 after buying an additional 1,046 shares during the period. Finally, Altrius Capital Management Inc boosted its position in BP by 9.9% during the third quarter. Altrius Capital Management Inc now owns 233,776 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $7,338,000 after buying an additional 20,976 shares during the period. 11.01% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on BP shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating on shares of BP in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler cut 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. Morgan Stanley cut 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of BP from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and four have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $39.64.

BP Price Performance

BP stock opened at $35.01 on Friday. BP p.l.c. has a 1 year low of $27.82 and a 1 year high of $40.40. The company has a market cap of $93.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 0.64. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $30.79 and a 200 day moving average of $31.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.22 and a quick ratio of 0.94.

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

BP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.48 per share. This represents a $1.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st. BP’s dividend payout ratio is 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.