Merit Financial Group LLC Grows Stock Position in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)

Merit Financial Group LLC grew its position in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) by 53.5% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,254 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,270 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in OXY. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,123,704 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $3,365,992,000 after acquiring an additional 10,434,098 shares in the last quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc lifted its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Berkshire Hathaway Inc now owns 264,178,414 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $13,053,055,000 after acquiring an additional 8,896,890 shares in the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 1,075.3% during the fourth quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 1,930,776 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $95,400,000 after buying an additional 1,766,491 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 48.1% during the fourth quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,117,777 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $203,459,000 after buying an additional 1,337,728 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 25.2% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,357,689 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $314,133,000 after buying an additional 1,278,389 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on OXY. Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 price objective on Occidental Petroleum and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $52.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. TD Cowen downgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $68.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Finally, Scotiabank cut Occidental Petroleum from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Occidental Petroleum presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $53.14.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Up 1.6%

OXY opened at $43.23 on Tuesday. Occidental Petroleum Co. has a 12 month low of $34.79 and a 12 month high of $64.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.72 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $40.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.94.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $6.80 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.97 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 16.33% and a net margin of 11.37%. Occidental Petroleum’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.24 per share. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.02%.

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.