Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) Short Interest Up 7.0% in June

Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) saw a significant increase in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,790,000 shares, an increase of 7.0% from the May 31st total of 9,150,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,180,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.5 days. Approximately 0.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Ecopetrol

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EC. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecopetrol by 58.2% during the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,402 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 2,355 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecopetrol during the 1st quarter worth $141,000. Earnest Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecopetrol by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 510,803 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,048,000 after acquiring an additional 5,844 shares during the last quarter. MQS Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Ecopetrol during the 1st quarter worth $125,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Ecopetrol by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 12,291,956 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $145,537,000 after purchasing an additional 105,172 shares during the period.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on EC. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Ecopetrol from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $11.00 to $8.50 in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Bank of America downgraded shares of Ecopetrol from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Ecopetrol from $10.30 to $11.90 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have issued a hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecopetrol currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.27.

Ecopetrol Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of EC traded up $0.05 on Tuesday, hitting $11.15. 2,041,457 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,041,108. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.90, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.77. Ecopetrol has a one year low of $9.92 and a one year high of $13.14.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The oil and gas company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.59 by ($0.09). Ecopetrol had a return on equity of 8.82% and a net margin of 14.35%. The company had revenue of $7.98 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.19 billion. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ecopetrol will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecopetrol Company Profile

Ecopetrol SA operates as an integrated energy company. The company operates through four segments: Exploration and Production; Transport and Logistics; Refining, Petrochemical and Biofuels; and Electric Power Transmission and Toll Roads Concessions. It engages in the exploration and production of oil and gas; transportation of crude oil, motor fuels, fuel oil, and other refined products, including diesel, jet, and biofuels; processing and refining crude oil; distribution of natural gas and LPG; sale of refined and petrochemical products; supplying of electric power transmission services; design, development, construction, operation, and maintenance of road and energy infrastructure projects; and supplying of information technology and telecommunications services.