Occidental Petroleum Dividend Yield Currently 4.7% (OXY)

The oil and natural gas company is currently offering its shareholders a 4.7% dividend yield, which is significantly higher than the average industry yield.

Occidental Petroleum has boosted its annual dividend payout every year since 2002. The company’s share price fell compared to last October, but is has been trending up over the last 60 days and is on track to rise further based on recent moving average indicators.

Should the share price continue its uptrend, moderate asset growth would be a nice supplement to the company’s above-average dividend income.

Occidental Petroleum’s next ex-dividend will be on December 8, 2017, and the next pay date is scheduled for January 16, 2018.

Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY)

Founded in 1920 and headquartered in Houston, the Occidental Petroleum Corporation acquires, explores and develops oil and gas properties. The company operates in three segments: Oil and Gas, Chemical and Midstream and Marketing. The Oil and Gas segment focuses on exploration, development and production of oil and condensate, natural gas liquids (NGLs) and natural gas. The Chemical segment manufactures and markets basic chemicals, including chlorine, caustic soda, potassium chemicals, sodium silicates, calcium chloride and polyvinyl chloride. The Midstream and Marketing segment gathers, processes, transports, stores, purchases and markets oil, condensate, NGLs, natural gas, carbon dioxide and power.

The share price dropped almost 27% between its 52-week high of $73.63 on October 28, 2016, and its 52-week low of 58.02 on May 4, 2017. The share price experienced some volatility over the summer and traded mostly sideways between the May low and August.

However, the share price has reversed trend and has been rising since it closed at $58.84 on August 21, 2017. Since that August date, the price recovered 57% of its losses and closed at $65.05 on October 27, 2017, which is still 11.7% below the 52-week high from one year ago, but 12.1% higher than the 52-week low from May.

After falling for seven months since February 2017, the share price’s 50-day moving average (MA) has been rising since the beginning of September. The current 50-day MA is less than 0.5% below the 200-day MA, which is still declining. The 50-day MA crossing above the 200-day MA in the next few days could be an indication that the share price will continue to rise, at least in the short term.

While the share price faltered for the most part of the last year, the company’s dividend has been performing well for more than a decade and continues to do so. Occidental’s current quarterly dividend of $0.77 is 1.3% above the quarterly dividend from a year ago. The current $3.08 annualized dividend payout is equivalent to a 4.7% dividend yield.

This dividend yield is significantly higher than the average yield of Occidental Petroleum’s peers in the Independent Oil and Gas segment and the Basic Materials sector. Occidental Petroleum’s current 4.77% dividend yield is 94% higher compared to the 2.44% simple average yield of the Independent Oil and Gas segment and almost double the 2.37% average yield of the Basic Materials sector.

After paying a steady annual dividend of $0.50 every year for a decade prior to 2002, Occidental Petroleum embarked on its current streak of 16 consecutive annual dividend hikes. Since 2003, the company grew its annual dividend at an average rate of 12% per year. The result of that growth rate is more than a six-fold annual dividend amount enhancement over the past 16 years.

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