Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Cut to “Hold” at TD Cowen

TD Cowen lowered shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports. TD Cowen currently has $45.00 price target on the oil and gas producer’s stock, down from their previous price target of $68.00.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on OXY. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $59.00 to $52.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $52.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Raymond James lowered Occidental Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $81.00 to $64.00 in a report on Monday, March 10th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $54.00 price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $57.90.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Down 9.6 %

NYSE OXY opened at $36.39 on Tuesday. Occidental Petroleum has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $71.19. The company has a market capitalization of $34.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.91 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’s fifty day moving average price is $46.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $49.14.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.64%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 39.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought 763,017 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $46.82 per share, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 264,941,431 shares in the company, valued at $12,404,557,799.42. The trade was a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new stake in Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter worth about $206,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 2.6% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 33,373 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,720,000 after acquiring an additional 831 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 8.3% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 103,072 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,312,000 after purchasing an additional 7,882 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Occidental Petroleum by 263.1% during the third quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 12,655 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $652,000 after purchasing an additional 9,170 shares during the last quarter. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 42.8% in the 3rd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 5,797 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $299,000 after purchasing an additional 1,738 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.