BP share price: Credit Suisse lifts rating on oil major

Analysts at Credit Suisse have hiked their stance on BP (LON:BP), pointing to the group’s progress on capital productivity and efficiency, after revising their projections for sterling in the wake of the Brexit referendum. The comments come after the blue-chip oil major recently signalled that did does not expect the UK’s decision to leave the European Union to have ‘a significant impact’ on its business.

BP’s share price has advanced in today’s session, having gained 1.40 percent to 453.05p as of 14:40 BST, outperforming the benchmark FTSE 100 index which currently stands 0.48 percent higher at 6,553.85 points. The group’s shares have gained just under four percent over the past year, and are up by more than 27 percent in the year-to-date.
Credit Suisse lifted its rating on BP from ‘underperform’ to ‘neutral’ yesterday, and hiked its price target on the stock from 330p to 430p. The bank’s analysts Thomas Adolff, Ilkin Karimli, Justin Teo, and Yaroslav Rumyantsev were quoted as saying in note to clients that the oil major’s “progress made on capital productivity and efficiency, as presented at the recent field trip in Baku, is impressive and should be applauded”. They added that this meant that BP’s cash cycle was better than expected, in turn somewhat de-risking the sustainability of the dividend.

“The company is now ‘out of rehab’ and is getting back on the pitch for battle,” the analysts pointed out.
Independent Research, which has a ‘neutral’ rating on BP, set a price target on the stock of 500p today. Canaccord Genuity, which sees the blue-chip oil major as a ‘buy’, boosted its valuation on the stock from 420p to 510p yesterday. BP is scheduled to update investors on its second-quarter performance on July 26.
As of 15:02 BST, Tuesday, 05 July, BP plc share price is 453.20p.