Occidental Vs. Chevron: Buffett Bought Both, But Which Is Better For You?

Jim Sloan
22.76K Followers
(19min)

Summary

  • Occidental and Chevron are two excellent but very different oil companies. Chevron is an excellent dividend/total return stock, while OXY should provide capital gains as well.
  • OXY is somewhat misdescribed as an integrated oil company; it's actually an odd but highly efficient exploration and production company with no downstream business but a midstream chemical unit.
  • OXY is best understood by studying its long-term debt levels and pulling from cash flow numbers the exact times of acquiring and repaying debt.
  • CEO Vicki Hollub seems to fully grasp the trick of buying assets with debt and letting their cash flows reduce the cost to near zero.

Oil wells and power lines on the side of the highway.

ugurhan

The events of 2019 in which Occidental (NYSE:OXY) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) fought a war to gain control of Anadarko, then a major Permian player, go a long way toward explaining why Buffett ended up buying significant positions in

This article was written by

22.76K Followers
I am a retired professor, a retired investment adviser, and currently a private investor and full-time tennis pro. I bought my first stock in a custodial account in 1958. I am a student of history, particularly military and economic/market history. The intellectual passions of my retirement years have been markets, mathematics, and quantum theory. Recently I have found myself reading book after book on the thoughts and feelings of animals, and I believe they are subtly influencing some of my views. I have a cat I like a lot. I like to travel. I served in Vietnam.

Analyst’s Disclosure:I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of OXY either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

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