Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) & Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) Head to Head Survey

Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) are both large-cap energy companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

61.8% of Exxon Mobil shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.0% of Exxon Mobil shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Exxon Mobil and Ecopetrol’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Exxon Mobil	9.17%	11.34%	6.79%
Ecopetrol	8.75%	5.15%	1.82%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings for Exxon Mobil and Ecopetrol, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Exxon Mobil	1	11	8	1	2.43
Ecopetrol	0	3	1	0	2.25

Exxon Mobil presently has a consensus target price of $124.76, suggesting a potential upside of 8.83%. Ecopetrol has a consensus target price of $11.00, suggesting a potential upside of 17.15%. Given Ecopetrol’s higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Ecopetrol is more favorable than Exxon Mobil.

Volatility and Risk

Exxon Mobil has a beta of 0.57, suggesting that its share price is 43% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Ecopetrol has a beta of 0.88, suggesting that its share price is 12% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

Exxon Mobil pays an annual dividend of $3.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Ecopetrol pays an annual dividend of $1.51 per share and has a dividend yield of 16.1%. Exxon Mobil pays out 56.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Ecopetrol pays out 115.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Exxon Mobil has increased its dividend for 42 consecutive years.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Exxon Mobil and Ecopetrol”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Exxon Mobil	$349.59 billion	1.40	$33.68 billion	$7.04	16.28
Ecopetrol	$32.80 billion	0.59	$15.23 billion	$1.31	7.17

Exxon Mobil has higher revenue and earnings than Ecopetrol. Ecopetrol is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exxon Mobil, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Exxon Mobil beats Ecopetrol on 15 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Exxon Mobil

Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments. The Upstream segment explores for and produces crude oil and natural gas. The Energy Products segment offers fuels, aromatics, catalysts, and licensing services. It sells its products under the Exxon, Esso, and Mobil brands. The Chemical Products segment manufactures and markets petrochemicals, including olefins, polyolefins, and intermediates. The Specialty Products segment offers performance products, including lubricants, basestocks, waxes, synthetics, elastomers, and resins. The company is also involved in the manufacturing, trade, transport, and selling crude oil, natural gas, petroleum products, petrochemicals, and other specialty products in pursuit of lower-emission business opportunities, including carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, lower-emission fuels, and lithium. Exxon Mobil Corporation was founded in 1870 and is based in Spring, Texas.

About Ecopetrol

Ecopetrol S.A. 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. As of December 31, 2022, the company had approximately 9,127 kilometers of crude oil and multi-purpose pipelines. It also produces and commercializes polypropylene resins and compounds, and masterbatches; and offers industrial service sales to customers and specialized management services. It has operations in Colombia, the United States, Asia, Central America and the Caribbean, Europe, and South America. The company was formerly known as Empresa Colombiana de Petróleos and changed its name to Ecopetrol S.A. in June 2003. Ecopetrol S.A. was incorporated in 1948 and is headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia.