Occidental Petroleum Co. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.22 (NYSE:OXY)

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 25th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be given a dividend of 0.22 per share by the oil and gas producer on Tuesday, October 15th. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th.

Occidental Petroleum has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 4.2% per year over the last three years. Occidental Petroleum has a payout ratio of 18.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Occidental Petroleum to earn $4.85 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.88 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 18.1%.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Up 0.0 %

Occidental Petroleum stock opened at $60.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $61.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $62.00. Occidental Petroleum has a fifty-two week low of $55.12 and a fifty-two week high of $71.18. The company has a market capitalization of $53.69 billion, a PE ratio of 16.54 and a beta of 1.61.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on OXY shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $69.00 to $68.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $90.00 to $80.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $70.00 to $81.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a report on Thursday, July 18th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $81.00 price target for the company. Finally, HSBC began coverage on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Monday, April 8th. They set a “hold” rating and a $65.00 price objective for the company. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $72.31.

Insider Transactions at Occidental Petroleum

In other Occidental Petroleum news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 1,060,653 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $59.59 per share, for a total transaction of $63,204,312.27. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 254,947,063 shares in the company, valued at $15,192,295,484.17. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Over the last ninety days, insiders have acquired 4,656,747 shares of company stock worth $278,664,028. Insiders own 0.31% 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.