Occidental Petroleum Corporation $OXY Shares Sold by Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.

Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc. lessened its stake in Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) by 13.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 106,250 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 16,500 shares during the period. Schwartz Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $4,369,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the third quarter valued at approximately $22,345,000. DNB Asset Management AS grew its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 100.3% during the 3rd quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 267,807 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $12,654,000 after purchasing an additional 134,128 shares in the last quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP grew its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 154.7% during the 3rd quarter. Mirabella Financial Services LLP now owns 29,566 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $1,394,000 after purchasing an additional 17,958 shares in the last quarter. Gifford Fong Associates grew its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 41.2% during the 3rd quarter. Gifford Fong Associates now owns 171,429 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $8,100,000 after purchasing an additional 50,000 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cooperman Leon G acquired a new position in Occidental Petroleum during the 3rd quarter worth $15,947,000. 88.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on OXY. Wolfe Research upped their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 6th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $53.00 to $73.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Finally, HSBC increased their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $59.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $62.43.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

NYSE OXY opened at $56.23 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.21 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.16 and a beta of 0.17. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $48.47. Occidental Petroleum Corporation has a 1-year low of $38.80 and a 1-year high of $67.45.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.44 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 19.98% and a return on equity of 9.65%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.14 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Corporation will post 4.94 EPS for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.20%.

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.