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Ecopetrol (EC) Stock Moves -0.55%: What You Should Know

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The most recent trading session ended with Ecopetrol (EC - Free Report) standing at $10.81, reflecting a -0.55% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 0.71% for the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.93%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.81%.

Shares of the oil and natural gas exploration company have depreciated by 10.24% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Oils-Energy sector's loss of 8.42% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.08%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Ecopetrol in its upcoming earnings disclosure. In that report, analysts expect Ecopetrol to post earnings of $0.70 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 55.56%. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $8.71 billion, indicating a 12.42% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $2.54 per share and a revenue of $34.11 billion, demonstrating changes of +6.72% and +2.83%, respectively, from the preceding year.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Ecopetrol. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. Consequently, upward revisions in estimates express analysts' positivity towards the company's business operations and its ability to generate profits.

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, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Ecopetrol is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

In the context of valuation, Ecopetrol is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 4.27. This denotes a discount relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 4.3.

One should further note that EC currently holds a PEG ratio of 0.98. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. The Oil and Gas - Integrated - Emerging Markets industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.57 as trading concluded yesterday.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - Emerging Markets industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 223, positioning it in the bottom 12% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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