Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) Increases Dividend to $0.24 Per Share

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of 0.24 per share by the oil and gas producer on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.88%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22.

Occidental Petroleum has raised its dividend payment by an average of 180.2% per year over the last three years. Occidental Petroleum has a dividend payout ratio of 21.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Occidental Petroleum to earn $3.56 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.7%.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of Occidental Petroleum stock traded up $2.16 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $51.00. 27,199,943 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,553,355. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.00 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Occidental Petroleum has a 1 year low of $45.17 and a 1 year high of $71.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $47.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.28 and a beta of 1.55. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $49.01 and a 200-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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 15.89%. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Occidental Petroleum

In other Occidental Petroleum news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 3,614,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 19th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $45.60 per share, with a total value of $164,799,084.00. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 264,178,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,046,535,678.40. The trade was a 1.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In the last 90 days, insiders purchased 6,854,394 shares of company stock worth $315,101,532. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OXY has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $54.00 to $45.00 in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. UBS Group lowered their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $58.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.71.

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.