A month has gone by since the last earnings report for Occidental Petroleum (OXY). Shares have lost about 8.2% in that time frame, underperforming the S&P 500.

Will the recent negative trend continue leading up to its next earnings release, or is Occidental due for a breakout? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at its most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.

Occidental Q2 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Lag

Occidental Petroleum Corporation reported second-quarter 2024 earnings of $1.03 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 77 cents by 33.8%.

In the year-ago quarter, the company recorded earnings of 68 cents. Strong production volumes and improvement in oil and NGL prices resulted in a strong performance.
GAAP earnings were $1.03 compared with 63 cents in the year-ago quarter.

Total Revenues

Total revenues came in at $6.88 billion, which lagged the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $7.18 billion by 4.1%. However, the top line increased 2.2% year over year.

Segmental Details

Oil and Gas revenues totaled $5.46 billion in the reported quarter, up 10.7% year over year.

Chemical revenues amounted to $1.27 billion, down 7.3% year over year.

Midstream & Marketing revenues of $282 million plunged 54.2% year over year.

Production & Sales

The total production volume was 1,258 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d). The metric was within the company’s production guidance of 1,232-1,272 Mboe/d. Permian and Gulf of Mexico volumes exceeded the midpoint of the guided range, which contributed toward strong average daily production volumes.

Total sales volume came in at 1,260 Mboe/d, up 3.1% from the year-ago period.

Realized Prices

Realized prices of crude oil increased 8.6% year over year to $79.89 per barrel on a worldwide basis. Realized natural gas liquids prices improved 11.3% year over year to $21.23 per barrel globally.

Natural gas prices declined 60.3% year over year to 54 cents per thousand cubic feet.

Highlights of the Release

Occidental benefited from new wells and the usage of new technology that drove capital efficiency.
 
Interest and debt expenses increased 9.6% to $252 million from $230 million in the year-ago quarter.

Financial Position

As of Jun 30, 2024, Occidental had cash and cash equivalents of $1.84 billion compared with $1.4 billion as of Dec 31, 2023.

As of Jun 30, 2024, the company had long-term debt (net of current portion) of $18.39 billion against $18.5 billion as of Dec 31, 2023. The company retired nearly $0.4 billion in debt in the year-to-date period. Another $1.9 billion debt is scheduled to be repaid by the end of August, which will further strengthen its balance sheet.

The company generated nearly $2.4 billion of operating cash flow in second-quarter 2024.

Total capital expenditure was $1.77 billion compared with $1.64 billion in the year-ago period.