Wells Fargo & Company MN Has $139,000 Position in Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC)

Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its holdings in shares of Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) by 10.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 17,575 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,703 shares during the period. Wells Fargo & Company MN’s holdings in Ecopetrol were worth $139,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in EC. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecopetrol by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,147,859 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $24,931,000 after purchasing an additional 96,909 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Ecopetrol during the fourth quarter worth $13,760,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in Ecopetrol by 22.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 850,753 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $6,738,000 after buying an additional 158,585 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Ecopetrol by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 696,412 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $5,516,000 after buying an additional 271,296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Ecopetrol by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 540,695 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $4,282,000 after buying an additional 7,009 shares during the last quarter.

Analyst Ratings Changes

EC has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup raised Ecopetrol from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $14.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Ecopetrol from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $7.50 to $9.50 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Ecopetrol from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecopetrol presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.00.

Ecopetrol Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:EC opened at $8.17 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $16.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.91 and a beta of 0.82. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $9.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.78. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. Ecopetrol S.A. has a twelve month low of $7.21 and a twelve month high of $12.67.

Ecopetrol Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed an annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, May 6th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 28th were given a $0.5202 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, April 28th. This represents a dividend yield of 34.2%. Ecopetrol’s dividend payout ratio is 72.25%.

About Ecopetrol

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.