What's In The Cards For Occidental's (OXY) Q1 Earnings?

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) is set to report first-quarter 2019 earnings on May 6, after market close. In the last reported quarter, the oil and gas company delivered a positive earnings surprise of 8.93%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.

Factors to Consider

Occidental’s Permian Resource assets are expected to lead to solid output and boost overall production volumes in the first quarter. In addition, its global market access through midstream business is likely to boost first-quarter earnings.

Occidental expects first-quarter total production in the range of 706,000-713,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and Permian Resources output within 256,000-261,000 boe/d. International production is expected in the range of 293,000-295,000 boe/d.

For the to-be-reported quarter, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for total revenues is $3,957 million, which indicates growth of 3.5% from the year-ago reported figure. However, earnings per share are expected to decline 21.7% from the year-ago reported figure to 72 cents.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Occidental is likely to beat estimates this earnings season. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a favorable Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below.

Earnings ESP: Occidental Petroleum has an Earnings ESP of 0.00%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are both pegged at 72 cents.

You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: It currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

We caution against Sell-rated stocks (#4 or 5) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Stocks to Consider

One can consider the following players in the Zacks Oil and Energy sector, which have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings in the upcoming releases:

TransCanada Corporation (TO:TRP) has an Earnings ESP of +5.36% and a Zacks Rank #2. It is expected to report first-quarter 2019 earnings on May 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

FTS International, Inc. (NYSE:FTSI) has an Earnings ESP of +54.24% and a Zacks Rank of 3. It is expected to report first-quarter 2019 earnings on May 7.

Cimarex Energy Co. (NYSE:XEC) , a Zacks #2 Ranked stock, has an Earnings ESP of +1.95%. The company is expected to report first-quarter 2019 earnings on May 8.

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