Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $56.54, but opened at $53.45. Occidental Petroleum shares last traded at $54.2040, with a volume of 2,001,309 shares traded.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

OXY has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $62.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 17th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $54.00 to $66.00 in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Capital One Financial boosted their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Truist Financial lowered their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $65.00 to $57.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $63.74.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Down 3.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $57.88 and its 200-day moving average is $51.14. The company has a market capitalization of $54.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.75 and a beta of 0.14.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.06 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.46. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 19.98% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The business had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.44 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. Occidental Petroleum’s quarterly revenue was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum Corporation will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is presently 26.20%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $3,696,716,000 after buying an additional 699,137 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,539,743 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,635,263,000 after buying an additional 828,848 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 0.9% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 167,518 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,602,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $436,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,883,721 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 18.9% during the fourth 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 period. 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.