Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Has $374,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,884 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,078,000 after purchasing an additional 123,572 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $432,945,000 after purchasing an additional 41,545 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 3.9% in the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $391,224,000 after buying an additional 85,985 shares during the period. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 2.3% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,173,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $368,142,000 after buying an additional 48,375 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Ecolab stock traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $219.56. The stock had a trading volume of 139,685 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,199,184. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.77 billion, a PE ratio of 45.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $231.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $223.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $200.29.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.27 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

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.