Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) closed at $42.96 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.85% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.79% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.86%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.56%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and gas exploration and production company had gained 2.55% over the past month. This has lagged the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 3.09% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 0.72% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from OXY as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.63, down 64.41% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.29 billion, down 14.33% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.86 per share and revenue of $20.92 billion. These totals would mark changes of -42.91% and +10.78%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for OXY. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.2% lower. OXY currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that OXY has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.32 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.81, so we one might conclude that OXY is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that OXY has a PEG ratio of 3.06. 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. The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.88 at yesterday's closing price.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 198, which puts it in the bottom 23% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow OXY in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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