Occidental Petroleum Corporation OXY

Cooke & Bieler, an investment management firm, released its second-quarter investor letter for “Mid Cap Value Equity Strategy.” The letter can be downloaded here. U.S. equities rallied significantly in Q2, driven by shifting geopolitical risks and strong investor appetite for high-beta stocks, particularly in the tech sector, contributing to the S&P 500® and Nasdaq’s best […]

You hold ExxonMobil (XOM) alongside index funds, and in the last five sessions, the stock rose 2.7% as the S&P 500 fell 1.0%. You already own the market's risk through those funds, so a large ExxonMobil position is either more of it or an offset. Is ExxonMobil stock increasing your market risk.

The worry for ExxonMobil (XOM) holders is that its refineries stop earning high margins. Management said in late July that the Strait closure keeps about 3 million barrels a day of refining capacity off the market. The second quarter alone supplied $14.5 billion of the $32.8 billion ExxonMobil earned over the last twelve months. How much of that profit rests on refining, and what would you lose if its margins fell back.

EOG Resources (EOG) has gained about 25% over the past year. The company pays a growing dividend and keeps buying back stock, so each remaining share owns a little more of the business every year. Over the last three years, though, that has not made the earnings behind your shares bigger. It has made them shrink more slowly.

Warren Buffett built Berkshire Hathaway into a dividend-collecting machine even though the company refuses to pay one itself, and five of his biggest holdings are quietly handing shareholders more cash every single year.

Key Stats for Occidental StockCurrent Price: $58. 84Target Price (Mid): ~$63Street Target (Mean): ~$68Potential Total Return: ~7%Annualized IRR: ~2% / yearWhat Happened?Occidental Petroleum (OXY) has a gap that most investors don’t know how to read.

Stocks that outperform the market usually share key traits such as rising sales, expanding margins, and increasing returns on capital. The select few that can do all three for many years are often the ones that make you life-changing money.