Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) was upgraded by analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ecopetrol from $10.00 to $13.50 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 5th. Zacks Research upgraded Ecopetrol from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 20th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Ecopetrol in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Bradesco Corretora set a $12.00 price objective on Ecopetrol and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, HSBC upgraded Ecopetrol to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.40.

Ecopetrol Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of EC opened at $13.85 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $14.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.08. The stock has a market cap of $28.46 billion, a PE ratio of 11.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.67 and a beta of 0.46. Ecopetrol has a 12 month low of $8.27 and a 12 month high of $15.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 1.55 and a quick ratio of 1.30.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecopetrol

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CWA Asset Management Group LLC bought a new position in Ecopetrol during the 4th quarter valued at $991,000. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Ecopetrol by 141.9% during the 3rd quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 362,904 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $3,342,000 after purchasing an additional 212,904 shares in the last quarter. Fundamenta Capital S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Ecopetrol during the 4th quarter valued at $20,135,000. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in shares of Ecopetrol by 247.8% during the 3rd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 97,912 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $902,000 after acquiring an additional 69,760 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH lifted its position in shares of Ecopetrol by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 520,754 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,796,000 after acquiring an additional 69,080 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.