Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Up 1.6% – Should You Buy?

Shares of Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) shot up 1.6% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $46.32 and last traded at $46.18. 3,200,248 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 71% from the average session volume of 11,147,556 shares. The stock had previously closed at $45.45.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Truist Financial raised their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, January 13th. 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. Finally, Roth Capital set a $54.00 price objective on Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $60.68.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 2.5 %

The firm has a market cap of $43.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.09 and a beta of 1.51. 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 firm has a fifty day moving average of $48.95 and a 200-day moving average of $50.32.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 16.33% and a net margin of 11.37%. Equities research analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current 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 paid a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is presently 39.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 2,477,362 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The shares were bought at an average price of $46.25 per share, with a total value of $114,577,992.50. Following the purchase, the insider now owns 257,758,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,921,348,477.50. This represents a 0.97 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have acquired 6,854,394 shares of company stock valued at $315,101,532 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.48% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of OXY. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth $26,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Atala Financial Inc bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

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.