Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Occidental Petroleum (OXY - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $56.10, moving +0.68% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.97%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.42%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.49%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and gas exploration and production company had gained 2.05% over the past month. This has lagged the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 4.07% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.71% in that time.

Occidental Petroleum will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Occidental Petroleum to post earnings of $1.42 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 1046.67%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $7.27 billion, up 32.68% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.68 per share and revenue of $30.14 billion, which would represent changes of +122.75% and +14.54%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Occidental Petroleum. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 27.73% higher. Occidental Petroleum is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Investors should also note Occidental Petroleum's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 9.82. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.97, so we one might conclude that Occidental Petroleum is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that OXY has a PEG ratio of 0.29 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. OXY's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.46 as of yesterday's close.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 31, putting it in the top 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) - free report >>

Published in