OXY Stock: The 0.6% Growth Spurt
Written by: Jerry from The Smartin Team
OXY $48.57 (-1.07%) · Smartin Score: 90/100 — YES · as of 2026-07-01
What is an “Occidental”? It sounds like something that happens to you at a dentist. “I went in for a cleaning and had an occidental petroleum extraction.” It’s a very specific kind of accident. But here we are, looking at a company that basically functions as a giant straw for the earth, and the math is actually… making sense? Which is the most annoying part of all of this.
The 0.6% Growth Spurt
First off, let’s talk about this earnings growth: 0.6% per year. Zero point six. That’s not growth. That’s the speed of a continental drift. That’s the rate at which my interest in this conversation is expanding. It’s “volatile,” which in Wall Street speak means “we have no idea what happens tomorrow but today was okay.” They’re calling it growth, but at 0.6%, you’re basically just standing still and hoping the wind pushes you forward a quarter of an inch.
But then you look at the price. The Price-to-Earnings ratio is 11.8. Eleven! You can’t get a decent haircut for eleven dollars anymore. In the world of growth at a reasonable price stocks, OXY is sitting in the clearance bin next to the off-brand cereal and the VHS tapes. It’s cheap. It’s “finding a twenty in your winter coat” cheap.
The Cyclical Spin Class
And what’s the deal with the PEG ratio? Smartin says “n/a” because the earnings are “cyclical.” Cyclical? Is this a stock or a spin class? “Oh, don’t mind us, we’re just in a cycle.” It’s the perfect corporate excuse. “I didn’t lose your luggage, sir, our customer service is just currently in a downward cycle. We’ll be back to helpful by 2028.”
The real kicker, though, is the debt. A Debt-to-Equity of 0.40. For a company that spends billions of dollars to punch holes in the dirt hoping to find dinosaur juice, that’s incredibly responsible. It’s like finding out your cousin who lives in a van has a 800 credit score. How are you doing this? Where is the leverage? Usually, oil companies have more debt than a med student in a Porsche dealership, but OXY is just sitting there, profitable and calm, with a Smartin Score of 90.
Look, everyone’s worried about “dirty” energy and the macro environment and the fact that we’re all supposed to be driving AA-battery cars by Tuesday. But OXY is sitting on a pile of cash, a P/E of 11, and a debt level that won’t give your accountant a heart attack. It’s a “YES,” even if the growth is moving slower than a line at the post office.