Occidental Petroleum Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Stock traders bought 93,733 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 71% compared to the average volume of 54,972 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Occidental Petroleum news, Director William R. Klesse purchased 5,000 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $38.98 per share, with a total value of $194,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 218,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,533,228.74. This trade represents a 2.34% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Moody National Bank Trust Division lifted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Moody National Bank Trust Division now owns 15,555 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $735,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc raised its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Northeast Financial Consultants Inc now owns 58,549 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,890,000 after acquiring an additional 242 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 3.8% in the second quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 6,720 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $282,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the period. Inscription Capital LLC grew its position in Occidental Petroleum by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Inscription Capital LLC now owns 32,734 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,547,000 after purchasing an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cigna Investments Inc. New boosted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 4.3% during the third quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New now owns 6,809 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 280 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on OXY shares. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Scotiabank raised their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 12th. Citigroup reduced their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.95.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

NYSE OXY traded up $1.04 on Tuesday, hitting $41.45. 9,619,274 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,150,571. The company has a market cap of $40.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.47 and a beta of 0.39. Occidental Petroleum has a 1-year low of $34.78 and a 1-year high of $53.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $41.23 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.56.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.66 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 12.35% and a net margin of 7.81%.The firm’s revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.00 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.59%.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

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.