Member Info for zac0_4

£8 per share with the current plan. I'd be happy to see us back to a pre-pandemic share price!!!!!

meoryou - I'm not aware that they've set a target of a 4% increase in the dividend year on year through to 2025.

"the strategy was to increase by 4% self funded by share count reduction"

meoryou, well that's news to me. From what I can see they increased the dividend last year by 4% based on the strong performance of the business, an improving outlook for the environment and confidence in the strength of the balance sheet. Since then we've had the Rosneft issue and an announcement of a windfall tax. There's no guarantee we'll see a further increase in the dividend like people seem to think. I'm not saying it won't happen but, in my mind, it's certainly not a given.

Charlie156 - the number of shares in circulation, unfortunately, doesn't affect the dividend shareholders receive. BP have paid 5.46c per share for the last 4 quarters. Assuming they follow their strategy and increase this by 4% for the next 12 months the dividend per share will increase to 5.68c. It will not increase by 6%, as you say, based on the reduction in the number of shares in circulation.

BPinvestor - I simply wanted to reduce my overall exposure to oil stocks. BP was a larger holding than Shell so decided to trim back on that. Plus Shell is performing better than BP, up 43% ytd against BP at 27%.

As for the loss of dividend, well 1% wasn't going to alter my decision.

I'll replace the lost annual dividend amount by re-investing elsewhere at around 7% yield (probably L&G) and plan to use the balance of capital to top up funds that are invested in US market as that's taking a hammering currently (Nasdaq especially). I think that's where the best opportunities for long term growth lies. That's the plan anyway!! Good luck.

I sold around 45% of my BP share this morning. I've held them for years with a cost price per share of around £4.45. The 10% capital loss was more than offset by the 25% return I've enjoyed from dividends along the way. So, overall a 15% return. Better than a loss I suppose although not a great return given the timescale.

I'll sit with the cash for the time being before deciding where to reinvest. I've no idea which way the markets will go from here. I think we're in for a bumpy ride for while.

Although I've sold 45% of my BP, the amount represents around 25% of the total value of my holdings in oil as I also hold Shell. I'll continue to hold but don't think oil will be a part of my portfolio in the long term. My main concern is the underperformance against pre-pandemic levels despite record profits. I fear both BP and Shell will fall dramatically once brent crude reverts to a more normal level.

Thanks for the link

Taxed as dividend income.

SD235 - I think you'll find for tax purposes that you are viewed as having received the dividend in cash even though you've opted for SCRIP

If you earn less than £50k income pa then you pay tax on dividends received, over the £2k allowance, of 8.75%. Unless of course dividends received sit in an ISA or SIPP in which case they are tax free.

It's the 'knowns' that concern me.

Since Dec-19 (pre-covid) we've seen a 47% increase in the price of brent crude, resulting in record profits. During the same period I've seen the value of my capital decrease by 23%!

I fear for the value of my investment when the oil price moves back to more 'normal levels. And it will!!

I've spent the last couple of years moving away from single shares. I'm now down to the last 3, BP, Shell and LGEN. I've sold out of Taylor Wimpey, Aberdeen (Standard Life), Vodafone, New River REIT (an absolute disaster!!!!) and SSE.

For income paying investments I now prefer investment trusts (MRCH, HHI & HFEL), and for pure capital growth investment funds - a mix of tracker and managed funds.

If you pick the right individual share there's clearly money to be made . . . I just don't seem to be able to pick enough good ones so am happy to mitigate risk!

Whilst I've no idea of the value of this contract it appears meaningful. If renewables is the future why don't we see details of valuable, meaningful contracts in that sector?

Why people get so hung up on the here and now I've no idea. I've held this for years. My average buy price is around £2.41. So, currently my capital has grown by around 13%. However, I've received dividends to date equating to just over 35% of my original investment! So a total return of 48%.

I just wish all of my holdings were as profitable. I'll only be interested in the share price when I eventually come to sell, which in my case is many years away.

Whilst I agree that if you get your timing right whilst trading there's money to be made, but I've learnt many lessons along the way, number 1 being for me that the harder I try to make money the less I make. So, I don't try. I let the investment do it for me. Good luck.

How anybody can say all is well here is beyond me. Just go back to Dec19. Share price £5 with Brent crude at $67 pb. Forward to today and a share price of £4 with Brent crude at $105 pb.

Maybe it’s the dividend cut. Maybe it’s the stated 40% reduction in output over the next 8 years. Maybe the switch to renewables is clearly far less profitable than its primary product ie oil!

Whatever it is I certainly won’t be holding this when Brent oil gets back to $67 pb. And it will at some point.

"plan to triple the size of our BP Pulse network by 2030 . . ."

Doesn't sound particularly ambitious to me!

Gary, good luck with your next investment. Out of interest which income funds and trusts are you considering?

Exactly . . . the joys. Dear me!

I've just been mulling over exactly what I'm hoping to achieve here. Originally, I invested for the dividend. Well that's gone south. So am I now looking for capital growth from here? I suppose I am as surely it has more recovery in it compared to its pre-pandemic level. I'm just not so sure anymore. Would I be happy with £4 as a sell price? Probably. But that's only a 6.0% rise from here so why continue to hold?

I could sell today and reinvest 55% of the proceeds in one of the investment trusts I currently hold and collect exactly the same annual dividend in monetary value as I 'enjoy' here. The 45% balance of the proceeds would go into one of the funds I own.

I went through this with Taylor Wimpey and eventually bit the bullet in June 2020 selling at £1.60 a share. The price today . . . £1.30!

Decisions, decisions, decisions. I always find it difficult saying goodbye to old friends!!

Enso - thanks for clarification. I see the RNSs you're referring to and would agree that they would seem to be a more accurate measure as to shares in issue trend as they clearly stipulate the numbers exclude treasury shares.

So since the end of 2019 / start of 2020 there's been around a 4.5% reduction in shares in circulation. I just wonder when this reduction, the fact that volumes have pretty much recovered to pre-pandemic levels and the $100+ pbo will come through in the share price. I've held this for years and will sit it out until q1 results are released. If there's no meaningful upward movement of the share price at that point I'll probably move on.

Thanks for taking the time to explain your point of view with evidence, there's too little of that here unfortunately.

Hi Enso - info source for my previous post as follows:

end q4 2020 number of shares 20,264m - bp investor website
707m buybacks in 2021 - bp investor website
300m buybacks in 2022 to date - bp investor website
total shares in issue today 20,643m - bp rns today