By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL – Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and ten have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $280.60.
Several research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 25th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Ecolab from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $279.00 to $290.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Piper Sandler upped their target price on Ecolab from $270.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, October 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $235.00 to $310.00 in a research report on Friday, October 18th.
View Our Latest Analysis on Ecolab
Ecolab Stock Performance
Shares of ECL stock opened at $234.52 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $246.72 and a 200 day moving average of $246.28. Ecolab has a 1 year low of $193.46 and a 1 year high of $262.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $66.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.13.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.82 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.12% and a net margin of 13.05%. The firm had revenue of $4 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.54 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Ecolab will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current year.
Ecolab Increases Dividend
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 17th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.11%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 17th. This is an increase from Ecolab’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.57. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.47%.
Insider Buying and Selling
In other news, major shareholder William H. Gates III sold 65,015 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction on Monday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $243.80, for a total transaction of $15,850,657.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 30,388,741 shares in the company, valued at $7,408,775,055.80. The trade was a 0.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 834,566 shares of company stock worth $205,225,417. 0.04% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Trading of Ecolab
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,181,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,317,811,000 after purchasing an additional 68,043 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.9% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 3,842,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $981,007,000 after purchasing an additional 35,027 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,558,198 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $608,851,000 after purchasing an additional 122,715 shares in the last quarter. Mirova US LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mirova US LLC now owns 1,975,415 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,149,000 after purchasing an additional 43,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Ecolab by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,403,088 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $358,250,000 after purchasing an additional 8,332 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.
Ecolab Company Profile
Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Global Industrial; Global Institutional & Specialty; and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences. The Global Industrial segment offers water treatment and process applications, and cleaning and sanitizing solutions to manufacturing, food and beverage processing, transportation, chemical, metals and mining, power generation, pulp and paper, commercial laundry, petroleum, refining, and petrochemical industries.
Further Reading
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