Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) is thinking about selling part of its operations in Texas’ Permian Basin, which could bring in over $1 billion, according to Reuters. This sale is part of Occidental’s bigger plan to cut down its massive debt load of $18.5 billion. Occidental is getting help from financial advisors to find a buyer for its assets in the Barilla Draw area. However, there’s no guarantee this sale will go through, and shares fell slightly in today’s trading.
In addition, Occidental’s CEO, Vicki Hollub, shared that a delay in regulatory approval has pushed back the company’s $12 billion deal to buy CrownRock to later this year, which has delayed plans to sell other assets worth about $6 billion. Nevertheless, Occidental is pushing ahead with selling the Barilla Draw assets that cover about 27,500 acres and are currently pumping out roughly 24,400 barrels of oil equivalent each day.
OXY’s Earnings Preview
OXY is expected to report earnings on May 7, and analysts anticipate year-over-year declines. In fact, earnings per share and revenues are expected to come in at $0.58 and $6.78 billion, respectively. This represents an approximate 37% decline for the former and a 5.5% drop for the latter. According to TipRanks’ Options tool, investors are implying a 4.06% move in share prices following the earnings report.
Is OXY a Buy or Sell Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on OXY stock based on seven Buys, 11 Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 11% rally in its share price over the past year, the average OXY price target of $71.94 per share implies 11.57% upside potential.
