Shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY) rallied in after-hours trading after the oil company reported earnings for its second quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. Earnings per share came in at $1.03, which beat analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.77 per share. In addition, sales increased by 1.7% year-over-year, with revenue hitting $6.817 billion. This beat analysts’ expectations of $6.7 billion.
Furthermore, oil and gas pre-tax earnings were $1.6 billion, up from $1.2 billion in the first quarter. This increase was mainly due to more domestic crude oil production, lower costs, and a recovery in the Gulf of Mexico after an outage in April. Higher domestic crude oil prices also helped, although these gains were partially offset by lower domestic gas prices and higher transportation costs.
Moreover, total global production averaged 1,258 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day, which beat the company’s own expectations by 6 Mboed. The Permian and Gulf of Mexico regions led the way with production totals of 587 Mboed and 138 Mboed, respectively. The Rockies & Other Domestic regions and International operations also contributed with 306 Mboed and 227 Mboed, respectively.
Investor Sentiment for OXY Stock
The sentiment among TipRanks investors is currently negative. Out of the 750,063 portfolios tracked by TipRanks, 3.9% hold OXY stock. In addition, the average portfolio weighting allocated towards OXY among those who do have a position is 8.19%. This suggests that investors of the company are confident about its future.
Furthermore, in the last 30 days, 2.5% of those holding the stock increased their positions. As a result, the stock’s sentiment is above the sector average, as demonstrated in the following image:
Is OXY a Buy or Sell Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on OXY stock based on three Buys, 11 Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 10% decline in its share price over the past year, the average OXY price target of $71.91 per share implies 26.96% upside potential. However, it’s worth noting that estimates will likely change following today’s earnings report.
