What to Look for in Occidental Petroleum Earnings

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (NYSE: OXY) is set to release its third-quarter earnings report before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for a net loss of $0.11 per share and $2.69 billion in revenue. In the same period of last year, Occidental posted $0.03 in earnings per share (EPS) and revenue of $3.25 billion.

This is one of the higher yielding domestic stocks in the energy sector. It has a dividend yield of just over 4%. Occidental is an oil-levered multinational organization with principal business segments in oil and gas and in chemicals.

The oil and gas segment explores for, develops, produces and markets crude oil and natural gas, primarily in the U.S. Permian Basin, Colombia, Bolivia, Libya, Oman, Qatar and Yemen. The chemicals segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, vinyls and performance chemicals.

With a rock-solid balance sheet and a commitment to dividend coverage, investors look safe for now. Occidental has paid quarterly cash dividends continuously since 1975, and it has increased its dividend each year since 2002.

[nativounit]

Prior the release of the earnings report, a few analysts weighed in on Occidental:

• Mizuho had a Buy rating with an $83 price target.
• Credit Suisse reiterated a Hold rating with a $72 price target.
• JPMorgan has an Underweight rating with a $78 price target.
• Jefferies reiterated a Hold a rating.
• Credit Agricole reiterated a Buy rating.
• Deutsche Bank has a Hold rating.

So far in 2016, Occidental has outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up 7.8%. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was down 3.5%.

Shares of Occidental Petroleum were trading down about 1% at $72.91 on Monday, with a consensus analyst price target of $78.92 and a 52-week trading range of $58.24 to $78.48.

[wallst_email_signup]