Individuals maintain attempting to breathe life into the BP (LSE: BP) share price. Former CEO Bernard Looney gave it a go by turning the oil large inexperienced.

In 2020, BP pledged to chop oil and gasoline manufacturing by an formidable 40% by 2030. That didn’t fly. It ended with the shares buying and selling at a big low cost to friends akin to Shell and ExxonMobil.

Final week, newish boss Murray Auchincloss did a reverse ferret. He’s now aiming to greater than double BP’s market worth inside 5 years by returning to fossil fuels. 

This FTSE 100 inventory is everywhere in the store

Auchincloss was spurred by the attentions of hedge fund Elliott, which has constructed a 5% stake within the FTSE 100 oil main.

Choices included stripping down the corporate, dumping web zero, re-listing in New York and probably all three and extra. Others have mooted a tie-up with rival Shell.

All of which retains the analysts busy, however is that this simply displacement exercise? Ought to we settle for that the BP share price simply ain’t all that?

The numbers inform a bleak story. The share price has fallen 5.4% up to now yr and is down 20% over two years. 

Regardless of the 2022 vitality shock, as we speak’s price of 439p leaves it buying and selling at related ranges to a decade in the past. At the least buyers have gotten their dividends.

BP seemed good worth a month or two again, with a price-to-earnings (P/E) of round six. I turned my again, solely to find that the P/E has soared to a staggering 231 occasions. 

On 14 February, BP posted a full-year revenue of simply $381m, down from $15.24bn in 2023. It made a lack of $1.96bn in This autumn.

At the least the dividend nonetheless holds. The yield stands at 5.6% on a trailing foundation and is forecast to hit 6.1% this yr. Cowl is respectable at 1.8.

BP has additionally been beneficiant with share buybacks. It promised one other $1.75bn in Q1 2025. Nevertheless it appears to be like more and more like the corporate must borrow to fund them. That’s not sustainable.

I’m simply relying on dividends

BP’s technique reset, introduced by Auchincloss on 26 February, marks a dramatic shift. He plans to extend annual spending on oil and gasoline by about 20% to $10bn whereas slashing renewables funding. 

BP additionally goals to promote $20bn in belongings by 2027, together with probably offloading Castrol and its stake in photo voltaic developer Lightsource BP.

It additionally hopes to slash web debt from $23bn to between $14bn and $18bn by the top of 2027. All of it will little doubt assist. However I really feel BP nonetheless appears to be like prefer it’s blowing with the wind.

When web zero was all the craze, it went together with that. Now we’re drilling once more, BP’s again to grease and gasoline. That’s no method to run an oil rig.

At the least now it’s on house floor, I suppose. However this disaster does imply one factor. BP can’t afford to take a seat about any longer. Because the stakes climb, any individual has to breathe life into the share price.

I maintain the inventory and I’m not giving up but. I”ll simply sit tight and maintain reinvesting my dividends. In some unspecified time in the future, all this exercise has to result in one thing, doesn’t it?