Teacher Retirement System of Texas Has $1.85 Million Stock Holdings in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas lifted its stake in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) by 740.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 37,393 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 32,942 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $1,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of OXY. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,846,890 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $710,886,000 after purchasing an additional 444,850 shares during the last quarter. H&H International Investment LLC increased its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 497.7% during the third quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 9,223,700 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $475,389,000 after buying an additional 7,680,598 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Occidental Petroleum by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,236,980 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $209,349,000 after acquiring an additional 229,210 shares in the last quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP lifted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 14.6% in the fourth quarter. Cooke & Bieler LP now owns 2,958,596 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $146,184,000 after acquiring an additional 377,952 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 48.7% during the 4th quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 2,461,033 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $121,600,000 after purchasing an additional 805,525 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on OXY. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Roth Capital set a $54.00 target price on Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com cut Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $54.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.82.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 763,017 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $46.82 per share, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 264,941,431 shares in the company, valued at $12,404,557,799.42. This trade represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE OXY opened at $49.47 on Friday. Occidental Petroleum Co. has a 52 week low of $44.70 and a 52 week high of $71.19. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $48.34 and its 200 day moving average is $49.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.28 and a beta of 1.51.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.13. The company 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. This is a boost from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is 39.34%.

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.