Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) Shares Sold by Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado decreased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) by 6.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 93,793 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 6,740 shares during the quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $6,096,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 904,081 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $58,757,000 after buying an additional 8,863 shares during the period. Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 1st quarter worth about $1,107,000. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 20.8% in the 1st quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,458 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 940 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 5.0% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,470 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $809,000 after purchasing an additional 589 shares during the last quarter. Finally, LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 1st quarter worth about $51,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

OXY has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $69.00 to $65.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 24th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 12th. Susquehanna raised their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.31.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 1,386,844 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $59.67 per share, for a total transaction of $82,752,981.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 250,583,605 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,952,323,710.35. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders purchased 4,656,747 shares of company stock valued at $278,664,028 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

Shares of Occidental Petroleum stock traded down $0.59 on Monday, hitting $59.95. 4,220,798 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,842,433. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $61.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $53.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.34 and a beta of 1.61. Occidental Petroleum Co. has a 12-month low of $55.12 and a 12-month high of $71.18.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.62 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $6.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.70 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 15.62% and a return on equity of 17.50%. The company’s revenue was down 17.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. Analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is 24.04%.

Occidental Petroleum Profile

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.