Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. HSBC decreased 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 note on Wednesday, November 12th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and set a $44.00 price target (down previously from $51.00) on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Monday, December 8th. Roth Capital upped their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.95.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of OXY opened at $42.35 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.73 billion, a PE ratio of 31.14 and a beta of 0.38. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $41.19 and a 200 day moving average price of $43.44. Occidental Petroleum has a 52-week low of $34.78 and a 52-week high of $53.20.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by $0.16. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 12.35%. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.66 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.00 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Occidental Petroleum

In other Occidental Petroleum news, Director William R. Klesse acquired 5,000 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was bought 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,533,228.74. The trade was a 2.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 77.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 139,086 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $5,843,000 after purchasing an additional 60,793 shares during the period. Tevis Investment Management purchased a new stake in Occidental Petroleum during the second quarter worth about $356,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,517,000. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the first quarter valued at $7,516,000. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 4.9% during the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 459,826 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $19,446,000 after acquiring an additional 21,393 shares in the last quarter. 88.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Occidental Petroleum

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.