Wall Street Zen Upgrades Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) to “Strong-Buy”

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

OXY has been the subject of several other research reports. Seaport Research Partners began coverage on Occidental Petroleum in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $73.00 price target for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $63.00 to $69.00 in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Zacks Research cut Occidental Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. UBS Group raised their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $59.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 14th. Finally, Evercore upgraded Occidental Petroleum from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $65.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $65.54.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Down 0.0%

OXY stock opened at $60.09 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $60.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.30, a PEG ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 0.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Occidental Petroleum has a 12 month low of $38.80 and a 12 month high of $67.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $57.30.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $2.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.83 by $0.57. The business had revenue of $8.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.07 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 28.36% and a return on equity of 15.31%. The business’s revenue was up 53.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.39 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum will post 6.20 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Occidental Petroleum

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired a new position in Occidental Petroleum during the second quarter worth $12,868,205,000. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 6.6% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 46,141,269 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $2,252,271,000 after buying an additional 2,870,472 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 84.8% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 10,643,916 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $516,975,000 after buying an additional 4,882,834 shares in the last quarter. Danske Bank A S purchased a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 2nd quarter valued at $172,413,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 2nd quarter valued at $168,860,000. 88.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, commonly known as Oxy, is an energy company engaged in the exploration, development and production of oil and natural gas. Its upstream operations are concentrated in the United States, including the Permian and Denver-Julesburg basins, and in selected international regions such as the Middle East and North Africa.

The company also operates midstream and marketing businesses that support the gathering, processing, transportation and sale of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.