Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Other research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $63.00 to $69.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Seaport Research Partners began coverage on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $73.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Truist Financial boosted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $79.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, September 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.54.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

NYSE:OXY opened at $61.08 on Friday. Occidental Petroleum has a one year low of $38.80 and a one year high of $67.45. The company has a market cap of $61.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.24. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $58.90 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $57.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.83 by $0.57. The company had revenue of $8.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.07 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 28.36% and a return on equity of 15.31%. The company’s revenue was up 53.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.39 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum will post 6.20 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is 17.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of OXY. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new stake in Occidental Petroleum in the 2nd quarter worth about $12,868,205,000. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,141,269 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $2,252,271,000 after purchasing an additional 2,870,472 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 84.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 10,643,916 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $516,975,000 after purchasing an additional 4,882,834 shares in the last quarter. Amundi grew its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 2.7% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,979,380 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $193,660,000 after purchasing an additional 78,335 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the second quarter worth approximately $172,413,000. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, commonly known as Oxy, is an energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas. Its upstream operations are concentrated in the United States, including the Permian and Denver-Julesburg basins, and in selected international regions such as the Middle East and North Africa.

The company also operates midstream and marketing businesses that support the gathering, processing, transportation and sale of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.