Platinum Investment Management Ltd. Invests $44,000 in Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC)

Platinum Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Ecopetrol S.A. (NYSE:EC) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 5,602 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in Ecopetrol by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 10,978 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $87,000 after purchasing an additional 1,271 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecopetrol by 317.5% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 4,784 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 3,638 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecopetrol by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 696,412 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $5,516,000 after acquiring an additional 271,296 shares in the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Ecopetrol during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $2,060,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecopetrol by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 540,695 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $4,282,000 after purchasing an additional 7,009 shares during the period.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Ecopetrol from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $7.50 to $9.50 in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup upgraded 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 research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Ecopetrol from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecopetrol presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $11.00.

Ecopetrol Price Performance

Ecopetrol stock opened at $10.31 on Wednesday. Ecopetrol S.A. has a 12 month low of $7.21 and a 12 month high of $12.90. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $9.49 and its 200-day moving average is $8.73. 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 company has a market capitalization of $21.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.93 and a beta of 1.22.

Ecopetrol Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a — dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.5202 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 3rd. This is a boost from Ecopetrol’s previous — dividend of $0.49. This represents a yield of 30%. Ecopetrol’s dividend payout ratio is presently 91.87%.

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.