Credit Suisse upgrades BP, broker says dividend somewhat de-risked

Analysts at Credit Suisse upgraded their view on shares of BP after revising their projections for sterling and given the progress made on capital productivity and efficiency, which in turn meant the sustainability of the dividend had been somewhat de-risked, among other things.

The Swiss broker now anticipated cable at between 1.25 to 1.35 over the medium to long-term, versus between 1.45 and 1.55 previously.

Furthermore, "progress made on capital productivity and efficiency, as presented at the recent field trip in Baku, is impressive and should be applauded," analysts Thomas Adolff, Ilkin Karimli, Justin Teo, Yaroslav Rumyantsev said in a research report sent to clients.

That, they said, meant the company´s csah cycle was better-than-expected, in turn somewhat de-risking the sustainability of the dividend.

A larger than expected resource base also meant there was less risk of/need for bigger M&A.

The analysts upgraded their recommendation on BP to 'neutral' from 'underperform' and bumped up their target price from 330p to 430p.

Also encouraging was the fact that all project developments were 'on-track' with the latest guidance.

"The company is now 'out of rehab' and is getting back on the pitch for battle," the analysts said.

Nonetheless, they continued to be unimpressed with BP´s greenfield options relative to peers.

As of 10:44 BST shares in BP were higher by 0.25% to 446.50p.