Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have assigned a hold recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $11.5667.

EC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised Ecopetrol from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 23rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Ecopetrol in a research note on Friday, May 15th. HSBC raised Ecopetrol to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Bradesco Corretora set a $12.00 target price on Ecopetrol and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Ecopetrol from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th.

Ecopetrol Stock Performance

NYSE:EC opened at $14.89 on Thursday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.62 billion, a PE ratio of 12.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 0.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. Ecopetrol has a twelve month low of $8.27 and a twelve month high of $15.62.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 31st. The oil and gas company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter. The business had revenue of $7.77 billion for the quarter. Ecopetrol had a return on equity of 12.39% and a net margin of 8.70%. On average, analysts anticipate that Ecopetrol will post 2.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecopetrol Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced an annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 29th were given a $0.6612 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, April 29th. This represents a yield of 481.0%. Ecopetrol’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.62%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecopetrol

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of EC. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Ecopetrol in the second quarter valued at about $93,000. Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in Ecopetrol in the second quarter valued at about $333,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in Ecopetrol in the second quarter valued at about $324,000. AXA S.A. bought a new position in Ecopetrol in the second quarter valued at about $271,000. Finally, MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in shares of Ecopetrol by 9.4% during the second quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 1,190,268 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $10,534,000 after acquiring an additional 102,505 shares during the last quarter.

Ecopetrol Company Profile

Ecopetrol SA (NYSE: EC) is Colombia’s state-controlled integrated oil and gas company and the country’s largest oil producer. The company’s operations span the upstream, midstream and downstream segments of the hydrocarbon value chain, including exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas, refining of petroleum products, transportation and storage via pipeline networks, and the marketing and sale of fuels and petrochemical feedstocks. Ecopetrol serves domestic demand in Colombia and maintains a portfolio of international investments and partnerships across the Americas.

In upstream activities, Ecopetrol focuses on exploration and development of onshore and offshore fields to sustain and grow hydrocarbon production.