Stuck In Neutral: Occidental Petroleum Beat EPS Consensus But Faces Slowing Business, Analyst Says (CORRECTED)

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the time of Occidental’s earnings call.

Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s (NYSE:OXY) second-quarter earnings exceeded analyst expectations after Wednesday’s close, but analysts still gave the oil and gas company a neutral outlook.

Occidental reported second-quarter revenue of $6.82 billion, which beat a Street consensus estimate of $6.80 billion, according to data from Benzinga Pro.

Quarterly earnings per share of $1.03 beat analysts’ estimates of 77 cents per share.

“We rate Occidental Petroleum (OXY) Neutral due to its more levered balance sheet, the slowing of its chemicals business, its lower long-term production growth rate vs. peers, and its strategy of selling assets in a weaker environment,” Roth Capital Partners analyst Leo Mariani wrote in a note.

But he also noted Occidental’s Chemicals sector posted $296 million in pre-tax income, which was in line with its prior guidance of $300 million as the company beat analyst expectations.

Read Also: Occidental Sells Certain Delaware Basin Assets, Boosts Debt Reduction Efforts

He also pointed out its MidStream segment registered $49 million in pre-tax earnings, after excluding $67 million in one-time items and non-cash losses, which was $184 million higher than the midpoint of its previous guidance of $85 million to $185 million in pre-tax losses.

“Overall, we expect OXY to have a positive reaction vs. peers.”

Scotiabank analyst Paul Cheng also acknowledged the earnings beat and assigned a Sector Outperform rating to the stock while noting the performance of the OxyChem and Upstream divisions was in line with Wall Street expectations.

“We think OXY's 2Q24 results will have a neutral impact on near-term share price performance,” he wrote in a note.

“The bulk of the positive variance was driven by the significant Midstream beat.”

Occidental is scheduled to have an earnings call with analysts at 1 p.m. E.T. Thursday.

Price Action: Occidental gained 4.05% to $58.38 by Thursday’s mid-day trading, while exchange-traded funds that track the stock also trended upward.

• Texas Capital Texas Oil Index ETF (NYSE:OILT) ticked up 0.72%
• First Trust Nasdaq Oil & Gas ETF (NASDAQ:FTXN) gained 2.01%
• Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy ETF (NYSE:RSPG) edged up 1.83%
• First Trust Natural Gas ETF (NYSE:FCG) went up 2.57%
• TCW Transform Systems ETF (NYSE:NETZ) improved 1.46%

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