We recently compiled a list of the Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round: 9 Stocks in Spotlight. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) stands against the other stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round.
Jim Cramer, the host of Mad Money, recently discussed a market trend that’s been generating impressive gains, especially when investors target heavily shorted stocks. He explained the phenomenon as he said that investors find success by betting that these companies are in better shape than short sellers expect. According to Cramer, this approach has led to some significant wins in recent times. He pointed out the behavior of short sellers, noting that when things go wrong for them, they panic.
“The shorts always panic when their trades fall apart because, unlike longs, if you’re a short seller, you can lose a lot more than a hundred percent of your investment if the stock goes up too much.”
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Cramer also highlighted that while short sellers can profit when a company fails, it’s a risky game with significant asymmetry. He explained that while a stock’s price can only fall to zero, it has the potential to rise indefinitely. Cramer cautioned that although short sellers might be hoping for a stock’s downfall, they are equally vulnerable to the nightmare scenario of infinite losses if the stock price continues to climb.
In such situations, when short sellers run out of options, they are forced to buy back shares, which can send the stock price even higher. For shareholders, this scenario can be advantageous. While short sellers may be a threat when predicting a stock’s decline, their need to buy back shares can act like rocket fuel for the stock’s price when good news emerges.
“If you’re a shareholder, they’re your worst enemy when they’re talking about a stock going to zero. But once the stock starts soaring on any good news, the shorts are your best friend because their forced buying is like rocket fuel and they can’t stop the propulsion while you just get to go along for the ride.”
Our Methodology
For this article, we compiled a list of 9 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the recent episodes of Mad Money. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the third quarter, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of 900 hedge funds.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).
Oil derricks in the background with a few workers in the foreground, emphasizing the company’s oil and gas production activities.
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 71
When Cramer was asked about Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY), he questioned why Buffett was a buyer of the stock.
“I think it’s okay… it’s Warren Buffett’s oil. I don’t know why he anointed this one, but he’s anointed it, he got a very good preferred deal. Look, Coterra is the way I like to do this thing… And by the way, they are not climate deniers, all right. Coterra is run by Tom Jorden. The stock is really on a tear lately because people realize the last acquisition… brought… a lot more oil so that the portfolio between oil and natural gas is much more balanced. It’s a buy.”
Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) is involved in the acquisition, exploration, and development of oil and gas properties, as well as the production of chemicals and the transportation and marketing of oil, gas, and related products. According to Insider Monkey’s data, Berkshire Hathaway owned 255.28 million shares of the company worth $13.157 billion in the third quarter.
For the third quarter, it posted earnings of $0.98 per diluted share, significantly surpassing analysts’ expectations, largely due to its effective cost management practices. In terms of cash flow, Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY) generated $3.8 billion in operating cash flow for the third quarter. The company’s production during the period averaged 1.4 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/d), surpassing the midpoint of its production guidance by 22,000 BOE/d.
Overall OXY ranks 1st on our list of the stocks featured in Jim Cramer’s Lightning Round. While we acknowledge the potential of OXY as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than OXY but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.