Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Rating Increased to Overweight at Piper Sandler

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) was upgraded by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a $66.00 price target on the oil and gas producer’s stock, up from their previous price target of $54.00. Piper Sandler’s target price points to a potential upside of 18.82% from the stock’s previous close.

OXY has been the topic of several other reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Susquehanna lifted their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $51.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 20th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Weiss Ratings raised Occidental Petroleum from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Occidental Petroleum has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $53.48.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Up 4.6%

Occidental Petroleum stock opened at $55.55 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. Occidental Petroleum has a 1-year low of $34.78 and a 1-year high of $56.34. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $46.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $44.45. The company has a market cap of $54.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.50 and a beta of 0.34.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 9.89%. The company had revenue of $5.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.80 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Occidental Petroleum

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 0.8% during 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 raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 39,539,743 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,635,263,000 after purchasing an additional 828,848 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,846,231 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $771,949,000 after purchasing an additional 167,518 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 21.6% in 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 buying an additional 1,883,721 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 18.9% in 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 buying an additional 1,071,948 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 88.70% 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.