According to a filing with the SEC, Avedick Poladian bought 5,000 shares of Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE: OXY ) on December 4 th at an average price of $73.43 per share. Poladian, who serves as COO of real estate company Lowe Enterprises, is a member of Occidental's Board of Directors and after his most recent purchase owns a total of 30,000 shares of the company's stock. Insider trading filings, particularly insider purchases, can be good to track as studies show that stocks bought by insiders tend to outperform the market on average (read more about studies on insider trading). The $61 billion market cap oil major had its sales decline very slightly in the third quarter of 2012 versus levels from Q3 2011. Slightly higher production was offset by lower prices for natural gas and natural gas liquids.