Everence Capital Management Inc. Trims Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Everence Capital Management Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 37.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,050 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,860 shares during the period. Everence Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Ecolab by 1.3% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,229,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,864,760,000 after purchasing an additional 141,180 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake in Ecolab by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $802,069,000 after purchasing an additional 2,023,685 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Ecolab by 1.4% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,611,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $761,451,000 after purchasing an additional 64,844 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted its stake in Ecolab by 4.0% during the second quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,730,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $696,424,000 after purchasing an additional 144,420 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price 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 issued an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 target price on the stock. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Eleven research 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, Ecolab has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:ECL opened at $219.25 on Thursday. 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 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $222.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $198.63.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.27 EPS. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s payout ratio 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.