Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.24

Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 1st, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be paid a dividend of 0.24 per share by the oil and gas producer on Tuesday, July 15th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 10th.

Occidental Petroleum has increased its dividend by an average of 180.2% annually over the last three years. Occidental Petroleum has a dividend payout ratio of 30.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Occidental Petroleum to earn $3.85 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 24.9%.

Occidental Petroleum Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:OXY traded up $0.17 on Friday, hitting $40.61. The company had a trading volume of 10,570,829 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,918,040. The company has a market cap of $38.16 billion, a PE ratio of 16.64 and a beta of 1.02. The business has a 50 day moving average of $43.72 and a 200 day moving average of $47.65. Occidental Petroleum has a 52-week low of $34.79 and a 52-week high of $65.78. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY - Get Free Report) 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. The company had revenue of $6.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $7.14 billion. Occidental Petroleum had a net margin of 11.37% and a return on equity of 16.33%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Occidental Petroleum will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc bought 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, for a total transaction of $35,724,455.94. Following the completion of the purchase, the insider now owns 264,941,431 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,404,557,799.42. This trade represents a 0.29 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.31% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

OXY has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Stephens reduced their price target on Occidental Petroleum from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. UBS Group reduced their target price on Occidental Petroleum from $44.00 to $38.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Occidental Petroleum from a "sector outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating and set a $40.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Roth Capital set a $54.00 target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Occidental Petroleum to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, fourteen have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Occidental Petroleum currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $54.19.

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.