California Resources Corporatio (CRC) Stock Price & How to Invest

California Resources was spun out of Occidental Petroleum in 2014 and operates from Long Beach with about 2,500 employees. It produces crude oil, natural gas liquids and natural gas from the San Joaquin, Los Angeles and Sacramento basins in California, plus the Uinta basin in Utah, and it sells almost all of that output into California refineries. Proved reserves stood at about 654 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2025, roughly 83% of it oil, concentrated in long-life conventional fields like Belridge and Elk Hills where decline rates are low and steamflood and waterflood techniques do most of the work. The company also owns gas-fired power generation that supplies its own field operations, and it runs a second reporting segment, Carbon TerraVault, which builds CO2 capture equipment and injects CO2 into depleted reservoirs. Its structural advantage is location: California imports more than 75% of the oil it consumes, so CRC's barrels price off Brent with a transportation-cost edge over waterborne imports into refineries already configured for California-style crude. On December 18, 2025 CRC closed an all-stock combination with Berry Corporation, issuing about 5.6 million shares at an exchange ratio of 0.0718, which left former Berry holders owning roughly 6% of the company and added the Utah acreage.

The investment picture in August 2026 is a story about the gap between reported earnings and cash earnings. CRC posted a $711 million net loss in the first quarter of 2026, almost entirely a non-cash mark on its commodity derivative book as oil prices ran up, while adjusted net income was $79 million and adjusted EBITDAX was $304 million. Management then raised full-year 2026 adjusted EBITDAX guidance by 42% to a $1,450 million midpoint, lifted the capital budget to $520 to $560 million, and set out a seven-rig program for the second half (six rigs in California, one in Utah) targeting an exit rate near 175 MBoe/d. Preliminary second-quarter figures filed in July showed Brent at $96.87 and WTI at $92.79, with CRC realizing $91.64 a barrel before derivative settlements and $76.50 after, alongside a $190 million settlement loss. Two policy changes underpin the activity increase: Senate Bill 237, effective January 1, 2026, cleared the Kern County permitting logjam, and Assembly Bill 1207 extended California's cap-and-invest program through 2045. Full second-quarter results were scheduled for August 10, 2026. Shares traded around $52.58 against a 52-week range of $43.25 to $71.98.

The hedge book is the most immediate distortion: CRC gave up about $15 a barrel to derivative settlements in the second quarter of 2026 ($76.50 realized after settlements versus $91.64 before), and the non-cash mark on those contracts produced a $711 million GAAP loss in the first quarter, so trailing earnings multiples are close to meaningless right now. Everything else runs on the oil price, which the company does not control and which cuts both ways. California is a uniquely hostile operating jurisdiction: CalGEM has prohibited well stimulation treatments, is running a five-year injection pressure reduction plan at the Wilmington field with the next phase on hold until fall 2026, and local ordinances continue to layer setbacks and restrictions on drilling. Refinery closures and declining in-state demand are a structural headwind to the customer base, and asset retirement obligations of about $906 million are a real long-dated liability for a producer with decades-old wells. The dividend and the repurchase program are both discretionary and priced off commodity cash flow, so a sustained oil downturn would pressure returns of capital, the roughly $1.3 billion debt load and the Berry integration at the same time.

11 analysts publish price targets on CRC, averaging $77.55 against a $52.58 price as of August 2026, or +47.5%. The published targets run from $58.00 to $87.00, a moderate spread, and the ratings split 11 buy, 0 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 8 raises and 4 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full CRC forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on California Resources Corporatio. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. A Brent-linked barrel in a high oil price year. California crude prices off Brent rather than off inland US benchmarks, and Brent averaged $96.87 in the second quarter of 2026 against $68.22 for full-year 2025. The most optimistic published target, $87.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The hedge book is the most immediate distortion: CRC gave up about $15 a barrel to derivative settlements in the second quarter of 2026 ($76.50 realized after settlements versus $91.64 before), and the non-cash mark on those contracts produced a $711 million GAAP loss in the first quarter, so trailing earnings multiples are close to meaningless right now. The most pessimistic target, $58.00, is roughly what CRC is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on CRC, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see California Resources Corporatio's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$2.9 billion GAAP, depressed by derivative marks; oil, gas and NGL sales alone were ~$905 million in Q1 2026
• Q1 2026 earnings: ~-$711 million GAAP net loss versus ~$79 million adjusted net income (~$0.88 a share)
• Adjusted EBITDAX: ~$304 million in Q1 2026, full-year 2026 guided to ~$1.4-1.5 billion
• Production: ~154 MBoe/d (~81% oil), 2026 exit rate targeted near ~175 MBoe/d
• Market cap / forward P/E: ~$4.7 billion at ~$52.58 a share, ~10x forward earnings, ~88.8 million shares outstanding
• Dividend and balance sheet: ~$0.405 quarterly (~$1.62 annualized, ~3.1% yield), ~$1.3 billion long-term debt, ~$1.28 billion liquidity

The useful multiple here is not the trailing one. Enterprise value of roughly $6.0 billion against the guided 2026 adjusted EBITDAX midpoint of $1,450 million works out near 4 times, which is where the market has generally placed California-concentrated producers. Trailing GAAP screens badly (negative EPS of about -$5.36 and EV/EBITDA above 25x) purely because the derivative mark sits in reported revenue and operating income. Price to book is about 1.56 against book value near $32.86 a share, and free cash flow ran about $380 million over the trailing twelve months while capital spending was stepped up to fund the second-half rig program.

Other names that sit close to CRC: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get CRC exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so CRC sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where CRC fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

CRC is a high-oil-cut California producer priced near four times its guided 2026 cash earnings, where the swing factors are hedges, Sacramento politics and whether carbon storage ever becomes a real second business.

Whether CRC is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is CRC a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the CRC stock forecast.

For income investors, whether CRC pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does CRC pay a dividend? And to weigh CRC against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: CRC vs CVX and CRC vs OXY.