Ascent Group LLC Has $1.50 Million Position in Occidental Petroleum Corporation $OXY

Ascent Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) by 492.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,729 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 26,371 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $1,499,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the second quarter worth $27,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Occidental Petroleum by 1,193.9% in the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 854 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 788 shares during the period. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 371.7% in the second quarter. MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 788 shares during the period. Tripletail Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at $49,000. Finally, Ransom Advisory Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 1st quarter valued at about $54,000. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Klesse acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $38.98 per share, for a total transaction of $194,900.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 218,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,533,228.74. The trade was a 2.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Down 0.7%

NYSE:OXY opened at $41.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $40.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.26 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $41.19 and a 200-day moving average price of $43.49. Occidental Petroleum Corporation has a 12 month low of $34.78 and a 12 month high of $53.20.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.66 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 12.35% and a net margin of 7.81%.The firm’s revenue was down 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.00 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Corporation will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 70.59%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on OXY. HSBC cut their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $52.00 to $51.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 20th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Occidental Petroleum presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.95.

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.