On Monday, August 4, both the Brent crude futures and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell more than 1% to reach their lowest levels in a week.
Previously, on Sunday, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, together known as OPEC+, decided to increase oil production by 547,000 barrels per day in September. At the same time, concerns about weaker demand are growing.
The news about rising supply and signs about weaker global demand pushed oil prices lower despite earlier concerns about US President Donald Trump’s threats to India.
On Tuesday, August 5, Trump again threatened to raise tariffs sharply on Indian goods because India continues to purchase oil from Russia. Trump also pointed out that lower energy prices could pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine.
India called Trump’s actions “unjustified” and said it would protect its economic interests, which worsened the trade tension between the two countries.
Despite these threats by Trump, oil prices fell. John Evans, an analyst at oil broker PVM, questioned whether Trump would risk increasing oil prices.
Giovanni Staunovo, analyst at UBS, said the market feels stable. According to the analyst, the market might stay steady until Trump releases more announcements about Russia later this week and how buyers respond to any such announcements.
With this background in mind, let’s take a look at the 12 best American energy stocks to buy right now.
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Our Methodology
To compile our list of the 12 best American energy stocks to buy right now, we used stock screeners from Finviz and Yahoo Finance to find the largest American energy companies. We sorted our results based on market capitalization and picked the top 50 American stocks. Next, we focused on the 12 American stocks most favored by institutional investors. Data for the hedge fund sentiment surrounding each stock was taken from Insider Monkey’s Q1 2025 database of 1,000 elite hedge funds. Finally, the 12 best American energy stocks to buy right now were ranked in ascending order based on the number of hedge funds holding stakes in them as of Q1 2025.
Why do we care about what hedge funds do? 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 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
12 Best American Energy Stocks to Buy Right Now
12. Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 59
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) is one of the best American energy stocks to buy right now. On July 14, Mizuho increased its price target for Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) from $58 to $65 and kept a Neutral rating on the stock.
Mizuho expects the company to miss the consensus EBITDA estimates by about 8% in Q2 2025. This miss is attributed to the front-weighted capital spending, which significantly impacted free cash flow. Mizuho projects the free cash flow to be about 53% below street expectations.
According to Mizuho’s review of Occidental Petroleum Corporation’s (NYSE:OXY) recent 8-K filing, the company is seeing a slight impact on oil volumes in the Gulf of America, some strength in oil and liquids pricing, and weakness in US natural gas realizations.
The firm attributed the expected miss in free cash flow primarily to heavy spending during the quarter, with about 55% of the 2025 budget allocated to the first half of the year. Based on the previous commentary by the company’s management, Mizuho believes these headwinds are not expected to continue into the second half of 2025.
Occidental Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:OXY) is an American multinational energy company with assets primarily in the United States, the Middle East, and North Africa. The company is one of the largest oil and gas producers in the US.
11. EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 64
EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) is one of the best American energy stocks to buy right now. On July 1, UBS reiterated its Buy rating on EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) with a price target of $140 ahead of the company’s Q2 2025 financial update scheduled for August 8.
UBS analyst Josh Silverstein expects EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) to report Q2 total production at the high end of its guidance. He also expects the company will maintain its full-year 2025 outlook.
The firm is looking forward to hearing about EOG Resources, Inc.’s (NYSE:EOG) plans for returning capital to shareholders. UBS noted that some of the company’s cash balance will be used to pay for the previously announced acquisition of Encino.
The analyst also expects the company to share more details about its Utica operations in the coming quarters, noting that this play is “clearly shifting from emerging to core.”
EOG Resources, Inc. (NYSE:EOG) is one of the largest American crude oil and natural gas exploration and production companies with proven reserves in the United States and Trinidad.
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