Campaigners for clean energy criticize the company’s payouts to shareholders, but investors are pressuring it to increase value because its stock has underperformed compared to most of its peers.
The business reported £13.8 billion (£11 billion) in underlying replacement cost profits in 2023, the company’s preferred metric.
This was less than the record $27.7 billion (£22.1 billion) that was reached in 2022, mostly as a result of reduced oil prices.
However, the final quarter’s better-than-expected performance, which was supported by stronger-than-expected gas trade, helped the figure.
It assisted the FTSE 100 company in announcing a 10% increase in dividends to about 7.3 cents per share for the three-month period.
The business announced that a further $3.5 billion in share buybacks will occur during the first half of 2024, and that buybacks totaling at least $14 billion were scheduled for 2024–25.
Shell and other competitors’ stock has grown more quickly than BP’s, therefore the company is under pressure to satisfy its investors.
As previously revealed by Sky News, investors did not always agree with the company’s intentions to switch to clean energy.
The Financial Times reports that a handful of activist investors are requesting t
In response to BP’s report, shares increased by 6%.
