Wall Street Zen Upgrades Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) to Hold

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

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on OXY. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. TD Cowen upgraded Occidental Petroleum to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $42.00 to $49.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.95.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Up 3.1%

Shares of NYSE OXY opened at $53.04 on Friday. Occidental Petroleum has a 1 year low of $34.78 and a 1 year high of $53.33. The company has a market capitalization of $52.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.95 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $44.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $5.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.02 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 9.89% and a net margin of 9.14%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, Director William R. Klesse bought 5,000 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $38.98 per share, with a total value of $194,900.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 218,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,533,228.74. This trade represents a 2.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,900,677 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,696,716,000 after purchasing an additional 699,137 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Occidental Petroleum by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,539,743 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,635,263,000 after acquiring an additional 828,848 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,846,231 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $771,949,000 after acquiring an additional 167,518 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 21.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,602,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $436,008,000 after acquiring an additional 1,883,721 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 18.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,730,847 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $276,772,000 after purchasing an additional 1,071,948 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

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.