Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Buys 229,210 Shares of Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Occidental Petroleum Co. (NYSE:OXY) by 5.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,236,980 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 229,210 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Occidental Petroleum were worth $209,349,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in OXY. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Occidental Petroleum in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Mizuho Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Transamerica Financial Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Occidental Petroleum in the 3rd quarter worth $50,000. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators lifted its position in Occidental Petroleum by 27.1% during the 4th quarter. Deseret Mutual Benefit Administrators now owns 1,164 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $58,000 after acquiring an additional 248 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Wave Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Occidental Petroleum during the fourth quarter valued at about $59,000. 88.70% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired 3,614,015 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $45.60 per share, with a total value of $164,799,084.00. Following the acquisition, the insider now directly owns 264,178,414 shares in the company, valued at $12,046,535,678.40. The trade was a 1.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have acquired a total of 6,854,394 shares of company stock worth $315,101,532 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.31% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on OXY. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $53.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. StockNews.com downgraded Occidental Petroleum from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Occidental Petroleum from $54.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $72.00 to $70.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Occidental Petroleum from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $61.50.

Occidental Petroleum Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:OXY opened at $45.69 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $49.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.79. Occidental Petroleum Co. has a fifty-two week low of $44.70 and a fifty-two week high of $71.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73 and a beta of 1.55.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The oil and gas producer reported $0.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $6.84 billion during 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, analysts predict that Occidental Petroleum Co. will post 3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Occidental Petroleum Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued 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 2.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Occidental Petroleum’s payout ratio is presently 39.34%.

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.