In the latest close session, Occidental Petroleum (OXY Quick QuoteOXY - Free Report) was down 1.09% at $57.25. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 1.01%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.83%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 1.22%.

Shares of the oil and gas exploration and production company witnessed a gain of 25.64% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Oils-Energy sector with its gain of 6.9%, and the S&P 500's loss of 2.86%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Occidental Petroleum in its upcoming release. On that day, Occidental Petroleum is projected to report earnings of $0.38 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 56.32%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $5.12 billion, indicating a 25.14% decrease compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.54 per share and revenue of $21.46 billion, which would represent changes of -30.32% and -15.65%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Occidental Petroleum. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 137.18% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Currently, Occidental Petroleum is carrying a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at valuation, Occidental Petroleum is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 37.61. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 20.44.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 216, which puts it in the bottom 12% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.