4 Half-Full or Half-Empty Battles BP Is Still Fighting (Update 1)

Updated from 11:24 a.m. ET to include additional commentary.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --BP(BP) is doing many things right in trying to put the Macondo oil spill behind it, but some of the decisions made by the company continue to send mixed signals to investors.

Tuesday's fourth-quarter earnings report offered up four examples of how for each step forward taken by BP, there seems to be room for the market to interpret it as a step backward.

BP Increases Dividend, but Not Enough?
BP is increasing its quarterly dividend to 8 cents from 7 cents, a 14% increase. A dividend increase was one of the catalysts that investors were looking for ahead of the earnings report. BP came through, but was the dividend increase short of investor expectations?

"The dividend raise may not have been as much as some people were thinking it would be," said Raymond James analyst Stacy Hudson.

BP reports a solid fourth quarter, but continues to send the market mixed signals in key areas of concern for investors.

Mark Gilman, analyst at the Benchmark Company, said the dividend expectations were, in fact, primarily responsible for the negative reaction to BP's earnings. BP shares were down by more than 1% on Tuesday, the biggest loser, and only notable decliner, among global oil companies.

Giman noted that BP is still a more popular investment in Europe than in the U.S. and the dividend receives greater focus overseas. Back when BP had to suspend its dividend after the Macondo disaster, European investors walked away from BP shares.

"I think that it is primarily the size of the dividend increase, which was less than I had expected, keeping in mind that European investors are particularly focused on dividends," Gilman said.

If so, it's important to keep in mind that BP's current dividend rate compared favorably with peers among global majors, at a 3.8% yield. This may be roughly half the yield that BP paid out pre-Macondo spill, but it's still twice the dividend yield of Exxon Mobil(XOM).

BP Won't Settle Oil Spill Lawsuits for Nothing, but It Will Settle, Right?

BP CEO Robert Dudley said in the earnings press release, "We are prepared to settle if we can do so on fair and reasonable terms, but equally, if this is not possible, we are preparing vigorously for trial."