Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Up 0% – Here’s What Happened

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)’s share price rose 0% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $38.63 and last traded at $37.90. Approximately 2,911,230 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average daily volume of 10,765,884 shares. The stock had previously closed at $37.90.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

OXY has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 6th. Stephens lowered their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank cut Occidental Petroleum from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, 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 report on Monday, March 10th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $55.81.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $36.15 billion, a PE ratio of 15.77 and a beta of 1.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $45.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.80.

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

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is currently 39.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 763,017 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $46.82 per share, with a total value of $35,724,455.94. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 264,941,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,404,557,799.42. This trade represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 3.5% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 8,896,890 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $3,365,992,000 after purchasing an additional 10,434,098 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position 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 valued at $701,816,000 after purchasing an additional 398,467 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 7.5% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,065,061 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $349,085,000 after acquiring an additional 491,797 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 25.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,357,689 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $314,133,000 after purchasing an additional 1,278,389 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.