Level Four Advisory Services LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)

Level Four Advisory Services LLC trimmed its stake in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) by 13.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 119,639 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after selling 19,290 shares during the period. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $5,911,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 18.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,123,704 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $3,365,992,000 after acquiring an additional 10,434,098 shares in the last quarter. H&H International Investment LLC grew its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 497.7% in the third quarter. H&H International Investment LLC now owns 9,223,700 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $475,389,000 after acquiring an additional 7,680,598 shares in the last quarter. Scharf Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 48.7% during the fourth quarter. Scharf Investments LLC now owns 2,461,033 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $121,600,000 after acquiring an additional 805,525 shares during the period. Anson Funds Management LP boosted its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 3,645.8% in the third quarter. Anson Funds Management LP now owns 765,486 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $39,453,000 after purchasing an additional 745,050 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Occidental Petroleum by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,846,890 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $710,886,000 after purchasing an additional 444,850 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 88.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

OXY has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “neutral” rating to a “sell” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $54.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Raymond James cut Occidental Petroleum from a “strong-buy” rating to an “outperform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $81.00 to $64.00 in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Truist Financial upped their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $58.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, January 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $59.82.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

Shares of NYSE OXY opened at $49.47 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $46.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.28 and a beta of 1.51. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $48.34 and its 200 day simple moving average is $49.91. Occidental Petroleum Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.70 and a fifty-two week high of $71.19.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $6.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.14 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a return on equity of 16.33% and a net margin of 11.37%. Equities analysts expect that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.24 dividend. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. This represents a $0.96 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 39.34%.

Insider Transactions at Occidental Petroleum

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 763,017 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $46.82 per share, with a total value of $35,724,455.94. Following the purchase, the insider now directly owns 264,941,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,404,557,799.42. This trade represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Occidental Petroleum Company Profile

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.