Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 10th

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 18th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be given a dividend of 0.26 per share by the oil and gas producer on Wednesday, April 15th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 10th. This is a 8.3% increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24.

Occidental Petroleum has decreased its dividend by an average of 0.2%annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 5 consecutive years. Occidental Petroleum has a payout ratio of 30.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Occidental Petroleum to earn $3.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.9%.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of OXY stock opened at $51.57 on Friday. Occidental Petroleum has a 52 week low of $34.78 and a 52 week high of $52.58. The company has a market capitalization of $50.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.03 and a beta of 0.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.57. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.18 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 9.14% and a return on equity of 9.95%. The firm had revenue of $5.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently weighed in on OXY. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 16th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. Wolfe Research dropped their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $55.00 to $54.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $44.00 to $42.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Barclays began coverage on Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.90.

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.