TheStreet Ratings Top 10 Rating Changes

Rating Change #1

Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, weak operating cash flow and disappointing return on equity.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• OXY's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.19 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.16, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems.
• The gross profit margin for OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP is rather high; currently it is at 55.40%. Regardless of OXY's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, OXY's net profit margin of 23.05% significantly outperformed against the industry.
• Regardless of the drop in revenue, the company managed to outperform against the industry average of 7.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 0.7%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $2,541.00 million or 17.33% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM CORP has marginally lower results.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry average. The net income has decreased by 22.4% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $1,771.00 million to $1,375.00 million.

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Occidental Petroleum Corporation engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas properties in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Oil and Gas; Chemical; and Midstream, Marketing, and Other. The company has a P/E ratio of 10.2, below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Occidental has a market cap of $60.35 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and energy industry. Shares are down 20.5% year to date as of the close of trading on Friday.

You can view the full Occidental Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

-- Reported by Kevin Baker in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.



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For all other upgrades and downgrades made by TheStreet Ratings Model today check out our upgrades and downgrades list.

Editor's Note: TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

Kevin Baker became the senior financial analyst for TheStreet Ratings upon the August 2006 acquisition of Weiss Ratings by TheStreet.com, covering equity and mutual fund ratings. He joined the Weiss Group in 1997 as a banking and brokerage analyst. In 1999, he created the Weiss Group's first ratings to gauge the level of risk in U.S. equities. Baker received a B.S. degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. with a finance specialization from Nova Southeastern University.

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