Occidental Petroleum Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:OXY)
by Jessica Moore · The Cerbat GemOccidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY – Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors bought 127,527 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 119% compared to the typical daily volume of 58,193 call options.
Insider Buying and Selling at Occidental Petroleum
In other news, Director William R. Klesse acquired 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 16th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $38.98 per share, for a total transaction of $194,900.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 218,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,533,228.74. The trade was a 2.34% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.49% of the company’s stock.
Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum
Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Woodstock Corp boosted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 29.2% in the fourth quarter. Woodstock Corp now owns 8,858 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $364,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC raised its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Woodward Diversified Capital LLC now owns 6,652 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $274,000 after buying an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC boosted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 108.6% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 17,774 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $731,000 after acquiring an additional 9,253 shares during the last quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group grew its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 65.4% during the 4th quarter. Net Worth Advisory Group now owns 19,645 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $808,000 after acquiring an additional 7,766 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 48.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 8,174 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 2,650 shares in the last quarter. 88.70% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
A number of research firms recently commented on OXY. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Evercore ISI decreased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 3rd. Mizuho boosted their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $60.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 11th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Sunday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $49.55.
View Our Latest Research Report on Occidental Petroleum
Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance
OXY traded up $0.98 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $44.29. 14,319,273 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,149,348. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.37 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.57 and a beta of 0.38. Occidental Petroleum has a 1-year low of $34.78 and a 1-year high of $52.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73.
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 10th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.64 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.
Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is 70.59%.
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.