Brokerages Set Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) Target Price at $49.95

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twenty-three analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, thirteen have given a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $49.9524.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on OXY. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $44.00 target price (down from $51.00) on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Monday, December 8th. Scotiabank raised their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $44.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 11th.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 2.6%

NYSE:OXY opened at $41.45 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.24 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.52. Occidental Petroleum has a one year low of $34.78 and a one year high of $53.20. The firm has a market cap of $40.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.47 and a beta of 0.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.94.

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

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be given a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 10th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.59%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Occidental Petroleum

In other Occidental Petroleum news, Director William R. Klesse bought 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $38.98 per share, for a total transaction of $194,900.00. Following the purchase, the director directly owned 218,913 shares in the company, valued at $8,533,228.74. This represents a 2.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.49% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,201,540 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $4,214,773,000 after purchasing an additional 697,521 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 1.6% during 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 22.0% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,089,878 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $756,796,000 after buying an additional 3,267,269 shares during the last quarter. H&H International Investment LLC lifted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 1.8% during the first quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 13,826,100 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $682,456,000 after buying an additional 249,100 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 11.5% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,718,939 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $412,045,000 after buying an additional 900,677 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.