Piper Sandler Cuts Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) Price Target to $48.00

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) had its target price lowered by analysts at Piper Sandler from $50.00 to $48.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the oil and gas producer’s stock. Piper Sandler’s target price indicates a potential upside of 19.18% from the stock’s current price.

OXY has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Occidental Petroleum to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Roth Capital set a $54.00 price objective on Occidental Petroleum in a report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $58.00 target price on Occidental Petroleum and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Occidental Petroleum has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $55.24.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

OXY stock traded up $1.25 on Tuesday, reaching $40.27. The company had a trading volume of 2,887,853 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,796,533. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a current ratio of 0.95. Occidental Petroleum has a 1 year low of $34.79 and a 1 year high of $68.43. The company’s fifty day moving average is $45.39 and its 200 day moving average is $48.43. The company has a market cap of $37.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.50 and a beta of 1.02.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $7.14 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc purchased 763,017 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $46.82 per share, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 264,941,431 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,404,557,799.42. This represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OXY. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in Occidental Petroleum during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. VSM Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Occidental Petroleum in the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Bernard Wealth Management Corp. acquired a new stake in Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Grove Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of Occidental Petroleum by 129.2% in the first quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 722 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. 88.70% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.