Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC Acquires 711 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 13.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 6,161 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 711 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,222,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of ECL. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Live Oak Investment Partners acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, Robbins Farley acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $226.76.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL traded up $3.17 during trading on Friday, reaching $227.75. The company had a trading volume of 1,410,422 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,157,055. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $219.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $195.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. The stock has a market cap of $65.12 billion, a PE ratio of 47.55, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.27 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.60%.

Ecolab 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.