Traders Buy High Volume of Occidental Petroleum Call Options ... - MarketBeat

Traders Buy High Volume of Occidental Petroleum Call Options (NYSE:OXY) - MarketBeat

Occidental Petroleum Co. ( NYSE:OXY- Get Rating) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 100,559 call options on the company. This is an increase of 27% compared to the average daily volume of 79,137 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 614,020 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 17th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $58.66 per share, for a total transaction of $36,018,413.20. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 216,112,188 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,677,140,948.08. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders purchased a total of 14,781,466 shares of company stock valued at $875,880,626 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Occidental Petroleum

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of OXY. Centaurus Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 7.0% in the 1st quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 19,326 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $1,207,000 after acquiring an additional 1,258 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 30.9% during the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 18,997 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $1,189,000 after purchasing an additional 4,484 shares in the last quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 85.6% during the first quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 480,319 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $29,985,000 after purchasing an additional 221,516 shares in the last quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC boosted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 0.9% in the first quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 423,066 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock worth $26,412,000 after buying an additional 3,713 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 11.3% during the first quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 92,748 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $5,790,000 after purchasing an additional 9,436 shares during the period. 78.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OXY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $63.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Roth Capital restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Monday, February 27th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $62.00 to $61.00 in a research report on Thursday. Evercore ISI cut shares of Occidental Petroleum from an "in-line" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $74.00 to $60.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $70.00 to $78.00 in a report on Friday, March 17th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $71.72.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

Shares of NYSE OXY traded up $0.88 during trading on Friday, reaching $59.13. The company had a trading volume of 15,634,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,796,841. Occidental Petroleum has a 52 week low of $54.30 and a 52 week high of $77.13. The stock has a market cap of $52.73 billion, a PE ratio of 6.78, a PEG ratio of 0.50 and a beta of 1.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 1.09. The business's 50 day moving average price is $60.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $63.77.

Occidental Petroleum ( NYSE:OXY- Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 9th. The oil and gas producer reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.30 by ($0.21). Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 27.06% and a return on equity of 45.10%. The firm had revenue of $7.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.37 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.12 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 15.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum will post 5.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 14th. Investors of record on Friday, June 9th will be given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 8th. Occidental Petroleum's dividend payout ratio is 8.25%.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

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Occidental Petroleum Corp. engages in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. It operates through the following segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical, and Midstream and Marketing. The Oil and Gas segment explores for, develops and produces oil and condensate, natural gas liquids and natural gas.

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