Occidental shares fall for a second straight session on Monday, company set to deliver asset sales of up to $15 billion

Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY) said on Monday that it was set to deliver planned asset sales of $10 billion to $15 billion and that it was confident in its deleveraging strategy following the close of its acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum on August 8th.

Occidental shares closed lower for a second consecutive trading session in New York on Monday. It has also been the steepest daily loss since September 17th. The stock went down 1.48% ($0.67) to $44.47, after touching an intraday low at $44.14, or a price level not seen since September 5th ($43.94).

Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation have retreated 27.55% so far in 2019 compared with an 18.74% gain for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2018, Occidental’s stock went down 16.67%, thus, it again underperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 6.24% loss.

Occidental said it had finalized the sale of Anadarko’s Mozambique LNG stake to Total S.A. for $3.9 billion. The company had previously announced a binding agreement to sell Anadarko’s assets in Africa to Total for $8.8 billion.

Additionally, Occidental has finalized the sale of its stake in Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. and Plains GP Holdings, L.P. for $650 million.

The company has also tied up with Ecopetrol to develop Midland Basin acreage. The transaction, which includes $750 million in cash and $750 million in carried capital, is to be finalized by the end of 2019.

“We have made progress quickly on our post-acquisition divestiture and deleveraging goals and remain confident in our ability to realize the full value of the Anadarko acquisition for our shareholders,” Vicki Hollub, Occidental’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a statement.

“Upon completion of our recent initiatives, we will have reached approximately $10 billion of our targeted divestitures with more to follow,” Hollub added.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to CNN Money, the 22 analysts, offering 12-month forecasts regarding Occidental Petroleum Corp’s stock price, have a median target of $55.00, with a high estimate of $80.00 and a low estimate of $40.00. The median estimate represents a 23.68% upside compared to the closing price of $44.47 on September 30th.

The same media also reported that at least 22 out of 28 surveyed investment analysts had rated Occidental Petroleum Corp’s stock as “Hold”, while 5 – as “Buy”. On the other hand, 1 analyst had recommended selling the stock.