Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Cut to Outperform at Raymond James

Raymond James downgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) from a strong-buy rating to an outperform rating in a report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $64.00 price target on the oil and gas producer’s stock, down from their previous price target of $81.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on OXY. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $77.00 to $65.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com cut shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $57.00 to $56.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $60.86.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

OXY stock opened at $46.11 on Monday. Occidental Petroleum has a 1 year low of $44.70 and a 1 year high of $71.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.27 billion, a PE ratio of 18.90 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company’s 50-day moving average is $49.12 and its 200-day moving average is $50.47.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 16.33%. The business had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. Equities research analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.24 dividend. This is a boost from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.08%. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is presently 39.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 3,614,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $45.60 per share, for a total transaction of $164,799,084.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 264,178,414 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,046,535,678.40. The trade was a 1.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last quarter, insiders have bought 6,854,394 shares of company stock worth $315,101,532. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of OXY. Northstar Financial Companies Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at about $486,000. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 30.0% during the fourth quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 43,293 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,139,000 after purchasing an additional 10,003 shares in the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $8,284,000. Landaas & Co. WI ADV bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $217,000. Finally, Bernard Wealth Management Corp. bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas.