Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Up 0.3% – What’s Next?

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)’s stock price traded up 0.3% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $47.85 and last traded at $47.41. 1,851,528 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 9,847,337 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.26.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Roth Capital set a $54.00 target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.45.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 0.7 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $45.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.66 and a beta of 1.51. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $48.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 16.33%. As a group, analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.00%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is 39.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 763,017 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $46.82 per share, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 264,941,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,404,557,799.42. This represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of OXY. Quest Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,360,000. Prospera Financial Services Inc increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 9,160 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $472,000 after purchasing an additional 1,685 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 149.8% in the 3rd quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 11,347 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $585,000 after purchasing an additional 6,804 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at about $685,000. Finally, Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,743,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

About Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas.