Quadrant Capital Group LLC Boosts Stake in Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC)

Quadrant Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) by 126.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 26,914 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,032 shares during the quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC’s holdings in Ecopetrol were worth $213,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership purchased a new position in shares of Ecopetrol in the 4th quarter worth about $13,760,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecopetrol by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 696,412 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,516,000 after purchasing an additional 271,296 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Ecopetrol in the fourth quarter worth $2,060,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Ecopetrol by 22.9% during the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 850,753 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $6,738,000 after buying an additional 158,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its position in Ecopetrol by 48,309.7% during the 4th quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 144,745 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $1,146,000 after buying an additional 144,446 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently commented on EC shares. Citigroup raised shares of Ecopetrol from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $9.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ecopetrol from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $7.50 to $9.50 in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Ecopetrol from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. One investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecopetrol has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.00.

Ecopetrol Trading Down 8.2 %

Shares of EC opened at $8.11 on Wednesday. Ecopetrol S.A. has a 1-year low of $7.21 and a 1-year high of $12.67. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $9.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $8.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.88 and a beta of 0.86.

Ecopetrol Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.5202 per share. This represents a yield of 30%. This is a boost from Ecopetrol’s previous — dividend of $0.49. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. Ecopetrol’s payout ratio is presently 49.76%.

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.