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Ecopetrol (EC) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Ecopetrol (EC - Free Report) closed at $9.96 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.99% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.92% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.62%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.05%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and natural gas exploration company had lost 33.33% over the past month. This has lagged the Oils-Energy sector's loss of 16.76% and the S&P 500's loss of 1% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Ecopetrol as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Ecopetrol to post earnings of $0.85 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 73.47%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.7 billion, up 65.17% from the prior-year quarter.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Ecopetrol. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 6.79% lower. Ecopetrol is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Ecopetrol's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 3.05. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 3.05, which means Ecopetrol is trading at a no noticeable deviation to the group.

Also, we should mention that EC has a PEG ratio of 0.05. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Oil and Gas - Integrated - Emerging Markets stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.01 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - Emerging Markets industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 50, which puts it in the top 20% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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