Shares in Aussie mining giant BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) are rangebound today, trading 0.27% higher at $52.53 apiece at the time of writing.
The world's largest mining company has seen a 26% jump in its share price this year to date. It's also up almost 5% over the previous month.
What's the outlook BHP shares?
Analyst sentiment is fairly widespread, according to Bloomberg data. The list of buy calls has dropped substantially these past few months with 52% of analysts now neutral on the stock.
Currently, 32% of coverage advocates to buy – down from nearly 70% in November 2021 – while the remaining 16% of analysts urge their clients to sell BHP shares, Bloomberg data shows.
According to JP Morgan, BHP offers a "low risk jurisdictional exposure [with] a competitive advantage" to diversified mining, especially those seeking to keep it local in Australia.
"BHP is the world's largest mining company, with key exposures to iron ore (50-60% 2022 earnings), copper (20-25%) and met [metallurgical] coal (15-20%)," the broker said in a recent note.
"BHP is [also] headquartered in Australia, and >80% of its earnings exposure is generated from operations in Australia. Australia offers a stable operating environment, clear fiscal regime and well established rule of law," it added.
Other investigations reveal that BHP's underlying markets are each roaring in 2022 with iron ore and copper, in particular, each posting strong rallies.
With tightening geopolitics and mounting inflation pressures, these aren't the only commodity markets charging north in 2022.
Meanwhile, analysts at Macquarie, Barrenjoey, BMO Capital Markets, and Morgans are constructive on BHP and rate it a buy right now.
According to Bloomberg data, the consensus price target on BHP is $48 per share at the moment, well below the current share price.
BHP shares have spiked 15% in the last 12 months and are now up 5.57% in just the previous week of trade.
