Shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp. rallied 2.3% in premarket trading Monday, putting them on track to snap a five-day losing streak, after Truist analyst Neal Dingmann became Wall Street’s most bullish on the oil and natural gas exploration and production company, citing expectations that record free cash flow will continue. Dingmann raised his rating to buy from hold. He raised his price target to $50, which implies a 58% gain off Friday’s closing price of $31.66, from $35. That is now the highest price target among the 29 analysts surveyed by FactSet. “[W]e believe the company will soon discuss plans to return its quarterly dividend to 2019/2020 levels along with the further possibility of an additional variable dividend and/or stock repurchase program,” Dingmann wrote in a note to clients. “Further, [Occicental’s] decarbonizing operations continue to gain steam capitalizing on its notable infrastructure in place/under development.” Occidental’s stock, which had lost 5.9% over the past five days, since it closed at a 20-month high on Oct. 8, has soared 82.9% year to date through Friday, while crude oil futures have run up 71.9%, natural gas futures have rocketed 110.4%, the SPDR Energy Select Sector ETF has rallied 51.3% and the S&P 500 has advanced 19.0%.
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