Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Up 0.5% – Time to Buy?

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) shot up 0.5% on Monday . The company traded as high as $49.09 and last traded at $48.13. 10,407,152 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 10% from the average session volume of 9,485,194 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.88.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on OXY. The Goldman Sachs Group cut Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $56.00 price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Truist Financial upped their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $58.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.71.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $47.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.28 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $49.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $51.45.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 15.89%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. This is a positive change from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 22.92%.

Insider Activity at Occidental Petroleum

In other Occidental Petroleum news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 3,614,015 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was bought at an average price of $45.60 per share, for a total transaction of $164,799,084.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 264,178,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,046,535,678.40. This represents a 1.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have purchased a total of 6,854,394 shares of company stock valued at $315,101,532 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 3.5% in the 4th quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 264,178,414 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $13,053,055,000 after buying an additional 8,896,890 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 18.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,123,704 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,365,992,000 after buying an additional 10,434,098 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 2.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,245,357 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $701,816,000 after buying an additional 398,467 shares during the period. H&H International Investment LLC grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 497.7% in the 3rd quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 9,223,700 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $475,389,000 after buying an additional 7,680,598 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,065,061 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $349,085,000 after buying an additional 491,797 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

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.