Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) Raises Dividend to $0.24 Per Share

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, February 18th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the oil and gas producer on Tuesday, April 15th. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Occidental Petroleum's previous quarterly dividend of $0.22.

Occidental Petroleum has raised its dividend by an average of 180.2% per year over the last three years. Occidental Petroleum has a payout ratio of 23.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Occidental Petroleum to earn $3.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.96 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.1%.

Occidental Petroleum Trading Down 3.2 %

Shares of NYSE:OXY traded down $1.68 during trading on Friday, reaching $50.42. 13,741,190 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,754,926. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.31 billion, a PE ratio of 20.66 and a beta of 1.55. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $49.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $51.45. Occidental Petroleum has a 12-month low of $45.17 and a 12-month high of $71.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.13. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 16.33%. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.14 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on OXY. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $77.00 to $65.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. StockNews.com raised shares of Occidental Petroleum from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $73.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Occidental Petroleum from a "neutral" rating to a "sell" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $54.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $61.90.

Insider Activity at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 763,017 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $46.82 per share, with a total value of $35,724,455.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 264,941,431 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,404,557,799.42. This trade represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last quarter, insiders purchased 6,854,394 shares of company stock worth $315,101,532. 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.