Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Stock Price

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) had its target price trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $53.00 to $52.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock.

OXY has been the topic of a number of other research reports. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $80.00 to $68.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $57.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and cut their target price for the company from $54.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $61.90.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 2.3 %

NYSE:OXY opened at $52.16 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.38 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76. Occidental Petroleum has a one year low of $45.17 and a one year high of $71.18. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $51.45.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 16.33% and a net margin of 11.37%. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.84%. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.07%.

Insider Activity at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 2,477,362 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 17th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $46.25 per share, for a total transaction of $114,577,992.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 257,758,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,921,348,477.50. This trade represents a 0.97 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have acquired 6,854,394 shares of company stock valued at $315,101,532. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in OXY. Berkshire Hathaway Inc raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 264,178,414 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $13,053,055,000 after purchasing an additional 8,896,890 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 18.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,123,704 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,365,992,000 after purchasing an additional 10,434,098 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 2.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 14,245,357 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $701,816,000 after buying an additional 398,467 shares during the period. H&H International Investment LLC lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 497.7% in the third quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 9,223,700 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $475,389,000 after buying an additional 7,680,598 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Occidental Petroleum by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,065,061 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $349,085,000 after acquiring an additional 491,797 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

About Occidental Petroleum

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. It operates through three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The company's Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops, and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs), and natural gas.