Strs Ohio Purchases 4,899 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Strs Ohio lifted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 109,258 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 4,899 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $21,671,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Riverwater Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Riverwater Partners LLC now owns 1,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $328,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the last quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Woodmont Investment Counsel LLC now owns 3,549 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $704,000 after acquiring an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. GS Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. GS Investments Inc. now owns 16,041 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,717,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Personal CFO Solutions LLC now owns 1,875 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $318,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 8,045 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,363,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of several analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, 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 note on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $219.04 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $221.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $198.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.72 and a 52-week high of $231.86. The company has a market cap of $62.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.73, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.27 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

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

About Ecolab

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.