Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Up 1% – Still a Buy?

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)’s share price shot up 1% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $48.46 and last traded at $48.41. 2,339,556 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 77% from the average session volume of 9,959,885 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.94.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 17th. Wells Fargo & Company restated an “equal weight” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James lowered Occidental Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $81.00 to $64.00 in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Piper Sandler cut their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 6th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.45.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Down 0.1 %

The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $48.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $49.98. The firm has a market cap of $44.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.62 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 16.33%. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. As a group, equities analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is a boost from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.00%. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is presently 39.34%.

Insider Transactions at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 763,017 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $46.82 per share, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now 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 SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in Occidental Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Occidental Petroleum during the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in Occidental Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Atala Financial Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

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.