Why Occidental Petroleum Stock Crushed it on Wednesday
An analyst pulled the lever on a rare double upgrade of the oil company.
Overview
For the most part, stock analysts tend to be cautious professionals. When they make a change in their coverage of a company, it tends to be incremental, like adding a few dollars to a price target. On the relatively rare occasions they change a stock recommendation, it tends to be up or down one peg.
That wasn't the case on Wednesday with Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY), which was the beneficiary of not only a recommendation upgrade but a double upgrade from a pundit tracking its fortunes. Largely because of this action, Occidental's shares closed that trading session nearly 4% higher.
Details
The upgrading party was Evercore ISI's Stephen Richardson, who moved his rating on Occidental from underperform (sell, in other words) to outperform (buy), skipping the usual stop of neutral. The analyst also raised his price target to $65 per share from $58.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.