Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) was the target of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Investors bought 93,733 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 71% compared to the average daily volume of 54,972 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, thirteen have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $49.95.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Occidental Petroleum news, Director William R. Klesse bought 5,000 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $38.98 per share, for a total transaction 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. This represents a 2.34% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its position in Occidental Petroleum by 926.9% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 777,564 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $38,381,000 after buying an additional 701,846 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in Occidental Petroleum by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 6,466 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $321,000 after purchasing an additional 633 shares during the last quarter. Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 24.9% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 20,676 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,021,000 after purchasing an additional 4,126 shares during the period. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the first quarter valued at approximately $219,000. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 23.2% during the first quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 309,575 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $15,281,000 after buying an additional 58,247 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

NYSE:OXY opened at $41.45 on Wednesday. Occidental Petroleum has a 1-year low of $34.78 and a 1-year high of $53.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $41.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $43.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock has a market cap of $40.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.47 and a beta of 0.39.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.16. The company 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%.Occidental Petroleum’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

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

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.