Investing.com - Shares in Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) were lower in premarket U.S. trading on Wednesday after the oil and gas firm unveiled production forecasts that were short of estimates.
The Houston-based group said it now anticipates that its production during the period will be between 1.370 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MMboepd) to 1.410 MMboed, compared to Wall Street projections of 1.43 MMboepd. For the full year, the figure is seen at 1.385 MMboed to 1.445 MMboed, also below consensus expectatations.
Analysts at Mizuho (NYSE:MFG) also noted that Occidental’s capital budget of $7.4 billion to $7.6 billion for 2025 was "modestly above" estimates of $7.4 billion.
"[W]e suspect investors may focus on a 2025 outlook that calls for [roughly] 2.3% less volumes and [about] 1.3% more capex compared to latest Street estimates," analysts at Mizuho said in a note to clients.
They added that attention is also focused on Occidental’s move to strike two deals in the current quarter worth a total of $1.2 billion to divest some upstream assets to unnamed buyers. The transactions, which are due to close by the end of Occidental’s first quarter, will help the firm bring down its debt load.
For the fourth quarter, Occidental reported adjusted per-share income of $0.80 on revenue of $6.84 billion, compared with estimates for EPS of $0.73 and revenue of $6.98 billion.
Total average global production rose to 1.46 MMboepd during the quarter, up by 18.6% from 1.234 MMboed in the same period a year earlier. Occidental also lifted its quarterly dividend by 9% to $0.24 per share.
(Yasin Ebrahim contributed reporting.)