Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC Sells 10,798 Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation $OXY

Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC trimmed its position in Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) by 11.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 79,649 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 10,798 shares during the quarter. Clifford Swan Investment Counsel LLC’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $5,177,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in OXY. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,602,660 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $436,008,000 after purchasing an additional 1,883,721 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 44.6% during the 1st quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 5,761,082 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $374,470,000 after buying an additional 1,776,922 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 54.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,959,638 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $162,820,000 after buying an additional 1,393,638 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Occidental Petroleum by 1,029.9% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,493,747 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $70,580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361,541 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 18.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,730,847 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $276,772,000 after acquiring an additional 1,071,948 shares in the last quarter. 88.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays upgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $59.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Roth Capital raised their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $45.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 15th. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Zacks Research cut Occidental Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, June 22nd. Finally, Stephens reduced their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $73.00 to $69.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and sixteen have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $64.17.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Up 2.3%

Shares of NYSE:OXY opened at $54.89 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $54.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.83 and a beta of 0.15. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $54.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. Occidental Petroleum Corporation has a 12-month low of $38.80 and a 12-month high of $67.45.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.46. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 9.65% and a net margin of 19.98%.The company had revenue of $5.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.44 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 8.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Corporation will post 5.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th were paid a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, CEO Richard A. Jackson bought 4,770 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was acquired at an average price of $52.38 per share, with a total value of $249,852.60. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer directly owned 444,098 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,261,853.24. This represents a 1.09% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.