ThePanelist.com - Is It Time For Me to Dump My BP Stock?

Is It Time For Me to Dump My BP Stock?

Written by Miranda Marquit

Wednesday, 26 September 2007

Photo:futureatlas, Creative Commons, Flickr
Why can't BP keep up with the other Big Oil companies?

Photo:Fotonchop, Creative Commons, Flickr

BP (BP) is the only Big Oil company I am investing in. I liked that they seemed to be trying to diversify their investments (including investing in the biofuel jatropha), but Dave Neubert's comment on one of my other posts got me thinking:

BP's huge advertising budget has done little to prove to me that they are somehow more of an ethical investment than any other oil company except Exxon (XOM), which I do not own.

I've been mulling that point over for a while. That, and the fact that BP appears ready to move down. Douglas McIntyre on BloggingStocks makes this point about BP and discusses why its profit margins aren't living up to the promise of other Big Oil companies:

BP is heavily into the refining and natural gas businesses where margins have not been as good as they are in oil exploration. The company's North Sea pipeline has been damaged.

BP also suffers from missteps in its recent past. Its Alaska pipeline has had leak problems, and the explosion of one of its refineries in Texas killed several workers.

This tends to make me think. I mean, how can BP be struggling at this point? It's time to do a little fundamental analysis on the company, looking at its management and its recent decisions. The only thing that appears to be helping BP maintain is the fact that the entire stock market is doing well. Besides, I bought BP stock back before the summer started, when there was a bit of a stock market decline (remember May and the initial inklings of serious subprime problems?), so I'll still be ahead. Not a lot ahead, but ahead nonetheless.

There. Done. No more BP for me.

Disclosure: I no longer invest in BP. I sold it while writing this post. I do not invest in XOM.

Site disclaimer.

Tags

See All Tags

Miranda Marquit

XOM

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Tag it:

Miranda Marquit
		About the author:
		Miranda is journalistically trained freelance writer who enjoys working out of her home nestled in the beautiful Cache Valley in Utah.
	Read More >>

Related Articles: