BP p.l.c. (BP) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.48 on March 28th

BP p.l.c. (NYSE:BP) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 11th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, February 21st will be paid a dividend of 0.48 per share by the oil and gas exploration company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a $1.92 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 21st.

BP has raised its dividend by an average of 12.6% annually over the last three years. BP has a dividend payout ratio of 48.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect BP to earn $4.10 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 46.8%.

BP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BP opened at $35.31 on Wednesday. BP has a twelve month low of $27.82 and a twelve month high of $40.40. The company has a current ratio of 1.25, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.70. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $31.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $31.34. The company has a market capitalization of $94.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 441.37, a PEG ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 0.64.

BP (NYSE:BP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by ($0.12). BP had a return on equity of 10.96% and a net margin of 0.20%. As a group, analysts expect that BP will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on BP shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on BP from $30.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of BP from $34.70 to $31.80 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of BP from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of BP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 17th. Finally, StockNews.com cut BP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and four have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $39.64.

About BP

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.