Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B), has famously avoided paying dividends. It has other priorities for the cash it generates, including investing it in buying shares of other companies. One of Berkshire's biggest investments has been in oil giant Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY).

While Buffett doesn't want to pay dividends to his investors, they are becoming Occidental's top priority. It has grown its payout rapidly in recent years, which will likely continue.

Occidental Petroleum hasn't always prioritized paying dividends. The oil giant slashed its payout by 98.7% during the pandemic, cutting the quarterly payment down to a penny per share. It made the difficult decision to reduce its dividend so that it could retain additional cash for debt reduction. After making a debt-funded deal to buy fellow producer Anadarko Petroleum in 2019, it needed to shore up its balance sheet when prices crashed the following year.

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Source Fool.com