LifePlan Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

LifePlan Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 4,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $839,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Carnegie Capital Asset Management LLC now owns 111,563 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $22,129,000 after acquiring an additional 2,051 shares during the last quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership grew its stake in Ecolab by 526.2% during the 4th quarter. Prio Wealth Limited Partnership now owns 56,959 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,298,000 after buying an additional 47,863 shares during the last quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc bought a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $35,040,000. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 39.6% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 167,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,128,000 after buying an additional 47,351 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Howland Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 5.4% during the 4th quarter. Howland Capital Management LLC now owns 183,159 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,428,000 after buying an additional 9,365 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on ECL. Barclays upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 price target for the company. Finally, Mizuho upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of Ecolab stock traded down $2.65 on Monday, reaching $219.04. 965,493 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,206,701. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $221.50 and a 200-day moving average price of $197.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.60%.

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.