Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Stock Position Raised by abrdn plc

abrdn plc lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,001,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 110,835 shares during the period. abrdn plc owned 0.35% of Ecolab worth $198,599,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd 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 grew its position in Ecolab by 1.3% in the 1st 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 grew its position in Ecolab by 58.0% in the 4th 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 grew its position in Ecolab by 1.4% in the 1st 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 grew its position in Ecolab by 4.0% in the 2nd 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. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ECL has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating for the company. Bank of America raised shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Mizuho raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.5 %

ECL stock traded down $1.05 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $218.16. The company had a trading volume of 2,586,604 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,014,656. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.72 and a 1 year high of $231.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company has a market capitalization of $62.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.55, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $223.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $199.13.

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. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.27 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.05%. 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.