Occidental Petroleum Target of Unusually Large Options Trading (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 127,527 call options on the company. This is an increase of 119% compared to the typical daily volume of 58,193 call options.

Insider Transactions at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, Director William R. Klesse acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $38.98 per share, with a total value of $194,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 218,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,533,228.74. This trade represents a 2.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in OXY. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 77.6% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 139,086 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,843,000 after purchasing an additional 60,793 shares in the last quarter. Tevis Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the 2nd quarter worth about $356,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,517,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 459,826 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $19,446,000 after buying an additional 21,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aberdeen Group plc increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 731,158 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $30,716,000 after buying an additional 30,746 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OXY has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Citigroup cut their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Bank of America decreased their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Morgan Stanley lowered 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 note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.55.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 2.3%

NYSE OXY opened at $44.29 on Thursday. Occidental Petroleum has a one year low of $34.78 and a one year high of $52.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.94. The company has a market capitalization of $43.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57 and a beta of 0.38. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $43.38.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.66 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 7.81% and a return on equity of 12.35%. The company’s revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.00 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

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 $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.