Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Receives New Coverage from Analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $55.00 target price on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on OXY. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a sector outperform rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 12th. UBS Group cut their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $70.00 to $59.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Thursday, July 18th. They set an outperform rating and a $81.00 price target for the company. Mizuho cut their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $76.00 to $72.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 16th. Finally, Stephens reissued an overweight rating and set a $76.00 target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Thursday, August 8th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $67.18.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of Occidental Petroleum stock opened at $55.76 on Wednesday. Occidental Petroleum has a fifty-two week low of $49.75 and a fifty-two week high of $71.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.23 and a beta of 1.57. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $55.08 and a 200 day moving average of $60.62.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.77 by $0.26. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 17.91% and a net margin of 16.62%. The firm had revenue of $6.88 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.93 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.68 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.58%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.04%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Occidental Petroleum news, major shareholder Petroleum Corp /De/ Occidental sold 19,500,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $35.75, for a total value of $697,125,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 165,681,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,923,116,413.50. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.31% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OXY. Berkshire Hathaway Inc lifted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 8.7% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 243,715,804 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $14,552,271,000 after purchasing an additional 19,586,612 shares during the last quarter. Himalaya Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Occidental Petroleum during the second quarter worth approximately $92,433,000. Clean Energy Transition LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 1st quarter worth approximately $67,601,000. Sarasin & Partners LLP acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 2nd quarter valued at $63,880,000. Finally, Scharf Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 2nd quarter valued at $42,744,000. 88.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Occidental Petroleum

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.