JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) to “Neutral”

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) was upgraded by investment analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report issued on Friday,Finviz reports. The firm presently has a $63.00 price target on the oil and gas producer’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 5.68% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $51.00 to $50.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $48.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Wolfe Research reduced their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 16th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.14.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of OXY stock opened at $59.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.03 and a beta of 0.34. Occidental Petroleum has a one year low of $34.78 and a one year high of $60.73. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $48.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $44.94.

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

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of OXY. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 21.6% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,602,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $436,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,883,721 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 54.3% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,959,638 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $162,820,000 after purchasing an additional 1,393,638 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 1,029.9% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,493,747 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $70,580,000 after buying an additional 1,361,541 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 18.9% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,730,847 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $276,772,000 after buying an additional 1,071,948 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 134.3% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,815,821 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $85,798,000 after buying an additional 1,040,941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

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.