Why is everyone talking about oil major Occidental Petroleum (OXY -0.28%)? It all comes down to one legendary investor's stamp of approval. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett's stake in Occidental Petroleum speaks volumes and has financial traders who wouldn't normally invest in the oil patch suddenly taking an interest in this oil and gas giant.
You don't have to buy Occidental Petroleum stock just because Berkshire did (though an argument could be made for doing so). Rather, self-directed investors can consider Occidental's qualities that might make it attractive to Buffett, and to value and yield seekers generally.
Occidental checks some Buffett boxes
Certainly, Occidental Petroleum wasn't always a perfect Buffett bet. At the time Berkshire Hathaway made its initial investment in the company, Occidental Petroleum wasn't the most profitable company and Berkshire ended up providing financing (in the form of preferred stock and warrants) for a massive acquisition. So, don't assume that Occidental Petroleum is a picture-perfect Buffett bet. On the other hand, Buffett has favored dividend growers, such as Coca-Cola and American Express.
Granted, Occidental Petroleum isn't a decades-long dividend grower like Coca-Cola and American Express have been. Occidental did, however, increase its annual dividend 38.5%, from $0.52 to $0.72.
Buffett is also known as a value investor, and a couple of quick-and-dirty measurements seem to put Occidental Petroleum stock in the buy zone. Over the trailing 12 months, Occidental has a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.9 , which compares favorably to ExxonMobil's 8.3 and Chevron's 8.9. Furthermore, Occidental Petroleum stock has a fair amount of headroom with a 52-week high of $77.13. These measurements aren't the be-all and end-all, but at least they suggest that Occidental shares aren't richly valued at the moment.
Buybacks and earnings growth seal the deal
Buffett certainly isn't averse to corporate share repurchases, and Occidental Petroleum repurchased $562 million worth of its own shares in 2022, including 47.7 million shares in Q4 alone, to complete a $3 billion share repurchase program. This isn't to suggest Occidental's buyback program was Berkshire's initial thesis on Occidental Petroleum. Still, motives aside, if you're on board with buybacks then Occidental Petroleum currently checks that box.
Finally, if everybody's going to talk about Occidental Petroleum, then that's not a bad thing as the company is demonstrating earnings growth. Occidental's Q4 2022 adjusted per-share earnings of $1.61 fell short of Wall Street's consensus estimate of $1.81, but nonetheless marked an improvement over the year-earlier quarter's $1.48. Moreover, Occidental Petroleum stayed profitable throughout all four quarters of 2022, a notable achievement in context as 2022 was a rough-and-tumble year for the economy generally (though admittedly, this isn't entirely unusual for an oil and gas producer at a time when oil and gas prices were higher). In any event, whether you're a follower of Berkshire and Buffett's trades or not, Occidental Petroleum stock looks like a decent albeit imperfect long-term option, especially if you're in the market for a big energy standby that unapologetically respects its shareholders.
