Wedge Capital Management L L P NC Sells 11,948 Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation $OXY

Wedge Capital Management L L P NC trimmed its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 231,139 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 11,948 shares during the quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $11,226,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Woodline Partners LP boosted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 40.7% in the 1st quarter. Woodline Partners LP now owns 57,079 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,817,000 after buying an additional 16,506 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the second quarter worth approximately $4,584,000. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 696.7% during the second quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 23,997 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,008,000 after acquiring an additional 20,985 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 7.4% during the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 105,767 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,443,000 after acquiring an additional 7,285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AXA S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 24.3% in the second quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 136,625 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,740,000 after purchasing an additional 26,741 shares during the period. 88.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on OXY. Capital One Financial increased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $70.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $62.00 to $60.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 17th. Evercore raised shares of Occidental Petroleum from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, Roth Capital boosted their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $65.00.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

Shares of OXY opened at $58.54 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $54.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $54.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.41 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Occidental Petroleum Corporation has a twelve month low of $38.80 and a twelve month high of $67.45. The company has a market cap of $58.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 0.15.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $8.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.07 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 15.31% and a net margin of 28.36%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 53.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Corporation will post 5.74 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. This is a boost from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Occidental Petroleum news, CEO Richard A. Jackson purchased 4,770 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.38 per share, with a total value of $249,852.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the chief executive officer owned 444,098 shares in the company, valued at $23,261,853.24. The trade was a 1.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock.

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.