Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Decreases Stock Holdings in Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY - Free Report) by 12.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 136,774 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock after selling 19,413 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund's holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $8,167,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Everhart Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 2.3% in the third quarter. Everhart Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,457 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $484,000 after acquiring an additional 169 shares during the period. PFG Investments LLC increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 2.7% in the third quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 6,423 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $417,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 1.2% in the third quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,754 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $957,000 after acquiring an additional 174 shares during the period. Conning Inc. increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 3.6% in the third quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 5,146 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $334,000 after acquiring an additional 180 shares during the period. Finally, Donoghue Forlines LLC increased its stake in Occidental Petroleum by 2.2% in the third quarter. Donoghue Forlines LLC now owns 8,971 shares of the oil and gas producer's stock valued at $582,000 after acquiring an additional 191 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.70% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have weighed in on OXY. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $66.00 to $72.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Stephens reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $62.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $77.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Scotiabank raised shares of Occidental Petroleum from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $63.00 to $90.00 in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $71.94.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of OXY traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $67.33. The stock had a trading volume of 5,279,631 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,689,348. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.25. Occidental Petroleum Co. has a one year low of $55.12 and a one year high of $71.18. The firm has a market cap of $59.69 billion, a PE ratio of 17.18 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.74. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 16.24% and a return on equity of 20.63%. The company had revenue of $7.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.93 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.61 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.85 EPS for the current year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This is an increase from Occidental Petroleum's previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Occidental Petroleum's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 22.51%.

Occidental Petroleum 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.