(BP) Shares of British Petroleum jumped 5% on Tuesday after boosting its stock repurchases to $2.5 billion, compared to February increment to $1.5 billion.
BP boosted share repurchase reflected a surplus cash flow, which the company said increased to at least $4 billion. The company also kept its $5.46 per share dividend intact.
The boosted buy back came at the back of a record $20.4 billion loss in the first quarter, which was fueled by a $24 billion write down on exited Russian operations. The headline loss was still lower than the company’s own projections of $25 billion.
BP’s net earnings, its underlying replacement cost profit, hit $6.2 billion in the quarter, the highest since 2008. The earnings exceeded estimates of $4.49 billion and $2.63 billion in the prior year.
BP also posted strengths for its refined oil products, with a profit of $1.6 billion in the quarter, up from a loss of $26 million in the prior quarter and $2 million loss in the previous year.
BP: NYSE is up +5.20% on premarket
