Investors Purchase High Volume of Occidental Petroleum Call Options (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 116,673 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 46% compared to the typical daily volume of 80,070 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 763,017 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $46.82 per share, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 264,941,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,404,557,799.42. This trade represents a 0.29 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders have purchased a total of 6,854,394 shares of company stock worth $315,101,532 in the last ninety days. 0.48% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of OXY. Berkshire Hathaway Inc grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 3.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 8,896,890 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 worth $3,365,992,000 after buying an additional 10,434,098 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,245,357 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $701,816,000 after purchasing an additional 398,467 shares during the last quarter. H&H International Investment LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 497.7% during the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 7,680,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,065,061 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $349,085,000 after purchasing an additional 491,797 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OXY has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Truist Financial boosted 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. Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com lowered Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.71.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE OXY traded up $2.79 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $51.63. 16,752,969 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,193,459. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $49.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.45. The stock has a market cap of $48.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.45 and a beta of 1.55. Occidental Petroleum has a 12-month low of $45.17 and a 12-month high of $71.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $6.84 billion during 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%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.