A combination of low yields, uncertainty about tax policies and weak commodity prices drove shareholders away from many upstream energy stocks and led to a relatively low performance for the entire sector last year, an analyst said recently.

“Many E&P companies were at the bottom of the barrel as far as shareholder preferences were concerned,” said David Deckelbaum, senior E&P research analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Speaking at an industry breakfast during NAPE, he said the relatively low performance of E&P stocks comes despite the surge in oil and gas ...