Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 73,453 Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation $OXY

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) by 4.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,681,468 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after buying an additional 73,453 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.17% of Occidental Petroleum worth $79,449,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 10.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,504,019 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,718,054,000 after acquiring an additional 8,273,030 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,044,478 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $1,649,147,000 after purchasing an additional 615,566 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,089,878 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $756,796,000 after purchasing an additional 3,267,269 shares in the last quarter. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Can raised its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. Can now owns 6,050,418 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $254,118,000 after buying an additional 30,000 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 11.8% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,955,130 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $208,165,000 after buying an additional 522,408 shares during the period. 88.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

NYSE:OXY opened at $44.29 on Thursday. Occidental Petroleum Corporation has a 52-week low of $34.78 and a 52-week high of $52.78. The company has a market cap of $43.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.57 and a beta of 0.38. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.38.

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

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 70.59%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on OXY. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $55.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.55.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Klesse purchased 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $38.98 per share, with a total value of $194,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 218,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,533,228.74. The trade was a 2.34% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.31% 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.