Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Barclays

Barclays began coverage on shares of Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) in a research note issued on Wednesday. The firm set an “equal weight” rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

OXY has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating and set a $44.00 price target (down from $51.00) on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $47.00 to $46.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 3rd. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $49.00 to $45.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $49.43.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

NYSE OXY traded up $1.20 on Wednesday, hitting $43.44. 2,680,490 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,913,292. The firm has a market cap of $42.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.94 and a beta of 0.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $41.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.36. Occidental Petroleum has a fifty-two week low of $34.78 and a fifty-two week high of $52.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director William R. Klesse purchased 5,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $38.98 per share, with a total value of $194,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 218,913 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,533,228.74. The trade was a 2.34% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of OXY. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its position in Occidental Petroleum by 77.6% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 139,086 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $5,843,000 after acquiring an additional 60,793 shares during the period. Tevis Investment Management acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the second quarter valued at $356,000. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum during the third quarter valued at about $35,517,000. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Occidental Petroleum by 4.9% in the 2nd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 459,826 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $19,446,000 after buying an additional 21,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aberdeen Group plc increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 4.4% during the 2nd quarter. Aberdeen Group plc now owns 731,158 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $30,716,000 after buying an additional 30,746 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.