OREANDA-NEWS. May 16, 2014. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp was upgraded by BofA Merrill Lynch from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note, American Banking and Market News reports.

The firm currently has a USD100.47 price target on the stock. BofA Merrill Lynch’s target price indicates a potential upside of 14.64% from the stock’s previous close.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp traded down 1.34% on Thursday, hitting USD 87.64. 190,987 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp has a one year low of USD 64.7615 and a one year high of USD 95.68. The stock has a 50-day moving average of USD 89.64 and a 200-day moving average of USD 83.80. The company has a market cap of USD 102.3 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.83.

The company also recently declared a special dividend, which is scheduled for Thursday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, May 23rd will be given a dividend of USD 2.4188 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 21st.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Analysts at Bank of America upgraded shares of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. Separately, analysts at Zacks reiterated an “underperform” rating on shares of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp in a research note on Monday, April 21st. They now have a USD 82.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Goldman Sachs reiterated a “conviction-buy” rating on shares of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp in a research note on Wednesday, February 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of USD 91.24.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation is an energy and chemical company. It operates its businesses through four segments: exploration and production segment, which involves in exploration and mining of original oil and natural gas; oil refining segment, which involves in processing of original oil and production of oil products; marketing and distribution segment, which involves in distribution, wholesaling and retailing of gasoline, diesel oil, kerosene and fuel oil, as well as chemical segment, which involves in manufacture and distribution of petrochemical products and inorganic chemical products.