Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $56.54, but opened at $53.45. Occidental Petroleum shares last traded at $54.2040, with a volume of 2,001,309 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on OXY. Barclays upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $59.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $64.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Stephens increased their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $59.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Finally, Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $46.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.74.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $57.88 and a 200-day moving average of $51.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The firm has a market cap of $54.28 billion, a PE ratio of 13.75 and a beta of 0.14.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.46. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 19.98% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The firm had revenue of $5.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.44 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.14 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Corporation will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.20%.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OXY. Axiom Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 1st quarter worth $25,000. GKV Capital Management Co. Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 1st quarter worth $26,000. Portus Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 1st quarter worth $29,000. Caitlin John LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Finally, Activest Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 68.5% during the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 750 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 305 shares during the last quarter. 88.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.