Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-six research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Sixteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $64.1739.

A number of brokerages recently commented on OXY. Capital One Financial raised their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $70.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Roth Capital raised their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lifted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $64.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, May 4th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Richard A. Jackson purchased 4,770 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were acquired at an average price of $52.38 per share, with a total value of $249,852.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer directly owned 444,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,261,853.24. This trade represents a 1.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of OXY. Woodline Partners LP raised its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 40.7% during the first quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 57,079 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,817,000 after acquiring an additional 16,506 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the second quarter worth about $4,584,000. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 696.7% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,997 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,008,000 after purchasing an additional 20,985 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 105,767 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,443,000 after purchasing an additional 7,285 shares during the period. Finally, AXA S.A. raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 24.3% during the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 136,625 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,740,000 after purchasing an additional 26,741 shares during the period. 88.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of OXY stock opened at $54.89 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Occidental Petroleum has a 12 month low of $38.80 and a 12 month high of $67.45. The stock has a market cap of $54.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.83 and a beta of 0.15. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $54.80 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $52.96.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.46. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 19.98% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The business had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.44 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum will post 5.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.20%.

About Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) is an international energy company engaged primarily in the exploration, production and marketing of oil and natural gas. The company conducts upstream activities to discover and produce hydrocarbons and operates complementary midstream and marketing functions to transport and sell its production. Occidental also owns a chemicals business that manufactures and sells industrial chemicals and related products for a range of end markets.

Occidental’s operations are concentrated in the United States, with a significant presence in the Permian Basin, and it maintains exploration and production activities in several international regions, including parts of the Middle East, Latin America and Africa.