The price of BP (BP) shares fell by more than 7% from August 6 to August 16, after US officials warned that they would be taking legal action against the multinational oil giant, preventing them from paying out dividends to existing share holders. Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli said the Justice Department was ‘planning to take action’ when he was approached at a conference meeting regarding the spill. He was asked if an injunction would be taken against BP to try and cease all payouts, due to the anger of the oil spill over the Gulf of Mexico.
Due to the pressure being put on the conglomerate by over 40 members of Congress as well as senators, BP share prices have now lost over 35% of their value since the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon rig earlier this year and the recent oil spill. Prior to these catastrophes taking place, BP was Britain’s largest oil company; since then the market cap of BP has seen a loss of more than $60 billion.
As BP continues to see their share prices fall, their competitors are expected to reap the benefits despite having to also endure falling stock prices. Chevron (CVX), ExxonMobile Corp (XOM) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDS-B) are all anticipating taking on the benefits of the oil spill both at the pump and on the stock market. Yet at the moment they all have to accept the damage that has been done to the overall state of the market.
ExxonMobil, for example, has had to witness a drop in its stock price as shares fell from a high of $69 to a current price of $59. The company sells for nine times forward earnings and pays a favorable yield of 2.9%.
Royal Dutch Shell has also experienced a stock price plunge over the same period. The stock has a price to earnings ratio of 11 and sports a very high yield of 6.3%.
This collective loss of revenue is due to the public disdain that has followed since the major oil spill, which consequently has had an effect on sales at the pump as the negative coverage continues to haunt BP’s share prices. Analysts expect that BP’s competitors will be the ones to benefit from the catastrophe. One such company that may see a rise in its share price is Helmerich and Payne (HP) as a significant portion of their business comes from exploring and extracting fossil fuels on land. The stock sells for 13 times forward earnings and pays a small 0.6% yield.
If you are interested in having a look at how the oil spill will affect other major energy conglomerates then WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has a list of the companies paying out the highest yields and other valuable information relating to oil stocks.
Author does not own any of the above.
By Stockerblog.com
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