why Ecopetrol S.A. [EC] is a Good Choice for Investors After New Price Target of $14.09

Ecopetrol S.A. [NYSE: EC] gained 4.59% or 0.51 points to close at $11.61 with a heavy trading volume of 4842256 shares. The company report on April 12, 2023 at 8:00 AM that Board of Directors of Ecopetrol S.A. appoints new Chairman of Ecopetrol S.A.

Ecopetrol S.A. (BVC: ECOPETROL; NYSE: EC) informs that its Board of Directors, in session on April 11th 2023, appointed Ricardo Roa Barragán as CEO of Ecopetrol S.A., who will take office no later than April 30th 2023.

The evaluation and selection process of candidates was carried out with the support of the Compensation, Nomination and Culture Committee of the Board of Directors of Ecopetrol S.A. and was accompanied by an international Headhunting firm specialized in recruitment of senior executives. The appointment took place after a rigorous analysis of the proposed candidates, in accordance with the Ecopetrol S.A. Chairman’s Succession Policy and other applicable regulations.

It opened the trading session at $11.20, the shares rose to $11.68 and dropped to $11.11, the range by which the price of stock traded the whole day. The daily chart for EC points out that the company has recorded 23.64% gains over the past six months. However, it is still -35.16% lower than its most recent low trading price.

If we look at the average trading volume of 2.16M shares, EC reached to a volume of 4842256 in the most recent trading day, which is why market watchdogs consider the stock to be active.

Here is what top equities market gurus are saying about Ecopetrol S.A. [EC]:

Based on careful and fact-backed analyses by Wall Street experts, the current consensus on the target price for EC shares is $14.09 per share. Analysis on target price and performance of stocks is usually carefully studied by market experts, and the current Wall Street consensus on EC stock is a recommendation set at 2.70. This rating represents a strong Buy recommendation, on the scale from 1 to 5, where 5 would mean strong sell, 4 represents Sell, 3 is Hold, and 2 indicates Buy.

HSBC Securities have made an estimate for Ecopetrol S.A. shares, keeping their opinion on the stock as Hold, with their previous recommendation back on February 10, 2023. The new note on the price target was released on February 09, 2023, representing the official price target for Ecopetrol S.A. stock.

The Average True Range (ATR) for Ecopetrol S.A. is set at 0.34, with the Price to Sales ratio for EC stock in the period of the last 12 months amounting to 0.68. The Price to Book ratio for the last quarter was 1.19, with the Price to Cash per share for the same quarter was set at 1.82. Price to Free Cash Flow for EC in the course of the last twelve months was 7.70 with Quick ratio for the last quarter at 1.20.

Trading performance analysis for EC stock

Ecopetrol S.A. [EC] gain into the green zone at the end of the last week, gaining into a positive trend and gaining by 0.43. With this latest performance, EC shares gained by 20.06% in over the last four-week period, additionally plugging by 23.64% over the last 6 months – not to mention a drop of -28.71% in the past year of trading.

Overbought and oversold stocks can be easily traced with the Relative Strength Index (RSI), where an RSI result of over 70 would be overbought, and any rate below 30 would indicate oversold conditions. An RSI rate of 50 would represent a neutral market momentum. The current RSI for EC stock in for the last two-week period is set at 61.38, with the RSI for the last a single of trading hit 64.70, and the three-weeks RSI is set at 58.69 for Ecopetrol S.A. [EC]. The present Moving Average for the last 50 days of trading for this stock 10.81, while it was recorded at 11.29 for the last single week of trading, and 10.37 for the last 200 days.

Ecopetrol S.A. [EC]: A deeper dive into fundamental analysis

Operating Margin for any stock indicates how profitable investing would be, and Ecopetrol S.A. [EC] shares currently have an operating margin of +20.60 and a Gross Margin at +26.18. Ecopetrol S.A.’s Net Margin is presently recorded at +25.35.

Return on Equity for this stock inclined to 40.87, with Return on Assets sitting at 11.59.

Ecopetrol S.A.’s liquidity data is similarly interesting compelling, with a Quick Ratio of 1.20 and a Current Ratio set at 1.40.

Ecopetrol S.A. [EC]: An earnings per share (EPS) analysis

The progress of the company may be observed through the prism of EPS growth rate, while Wall Street analysts are focusing on predicting the 5-year EPS growth rate for EC. When it comes to the mentioned value, analysts are expecting to see the 5-year EPS growth rate for Ecopetrol S.A. go to -13.00%.

An analysis of insider ownership at Ecopetrol S.A. [EC]

There are presently around $458 million, or 1.50% of EC stock, in the hands of institutional investors. The top three institutional holders of EC stocks are: BLACKROCK INC. with ownership of 4,573,017, which is approximately -11.121% of the company’s market cap and around 1.00% of the total institutional ownership; ARROWSTREET CAPITAL, LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, holding 3,388,012 shares of the stock with an approximate value of $39.34 million in EC stocks shares; and MARSHALL WACE, LLP, currently with $37.53 million in EC stock with ownership of nearly 158.706% of the company’s market capitalization.

Positions in Ecopetrol S.A. stocks held by institutional investors increased at the end of Wednesday and at the time of the Wednesday reporting period, where 88 institutional holders increased their position in Ecopetrol S.A. [NYSE:EC] by around 17,745,161 shares. Additionally, 69 investors decreased positions by around 5,250,358 shares, while 9 investors held positions by with 16,433,782 shares. The mentioned changes placed institutional holdings at 39,429,301 shares, according to the latest SEC report filing. EC stock had 42 new institutional investments in for a total of 4,558,426 shares, while 30 institutional investors sold positions of 979,622 shares during the same period.