Ecopetrol (EC) closed the most recent trading day at $17.46, moving -4.38% from the previous trading session. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.45%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.21%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.01%.
Shares of the oil and natural gas exploration company have appreciated by 3.28% over the course of the past month, underperforming the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 3.72%, and outperforming the S&P 500's loss of 2.43%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Ecopetrol in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.43, indicating a 38.71% growth compared to the equivalent quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $8.8 billion, indicating a 18% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $1.85 per share and a revenue of $36.23 billion, demonstrating changes of +46.83% and +22.4%, 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. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Ecopetrol presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
From a valuation perspective, Ecopetrol is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.9. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 9.04.
One should further note that EC currently holds a PEG ratio of 1.35. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry was having an average PEG ratio of 0.7.
The Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, which puts it in the top 35% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Ecopetrol S.A. (EC): Free Stock Analysis Report
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).