Ecopetrol (EC) closed the most recent trading day at $10.63, moving +0.19% from the previous trading session. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.67%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.56%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.87%.
Shares of the oil and natural gas exploration company have appreciated by 16.47% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 3.06% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.28%.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Ecopetrol in its forthcoming earnings report. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.58, indicating a 16% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $7.35 billion, showing a 7.89% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.
It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for Ecopetrol. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.8% higher. Right now, Ecopetrol possesses a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Digging into valuation, Ecopetrol currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 5.61. This denotes a discount relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 8.47.
The Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 140, positioning it in the bottom 44% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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Ecopetrol S.A. (EC): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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