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

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the twenty-six research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, fifteen have assigned a hold recommendation, nine have given a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $63.7391.

OXY has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $72.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Argus upgraded Occidental Petroleum to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 27th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 13th. Stephens increased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $59.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 28th.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of OXY. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at $22,345,000. DNB Asset Management AS raised its position in Occidental Petroleum by 100.3% during the 3rd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 267,807 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $12,654,000 after buying an additional 134,128 shares during the last quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 154.7% in the 3rd quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 29,566 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,394,000 after purchasing an additional 17,958 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,084,356 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $44,589,000 after purchasing an additional 124,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,900,677 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,696,716,000 after purchasing an additional 699,137 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE OXY opened at $52.34 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $56.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $51.67. Occidental Petroleum has a 1 year low of $38.80 and a 1 year high of $67.45. The company has a market capitalization of $52.06 billion, a PE ratio of 13.18 and a beta of 0.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.21.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.46. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 19.98% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The firm had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.44 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is currently 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.