250 Shares in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Purchased by MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC

MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 250 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 203,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,501,000 after acquiring an additional 11,448 shares in the last quarter. Concord Wealth Partners increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 333.1% in the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 1,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $199,000 after acquiring an additional 906 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 28.3% in the 3rd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in Ecolab by 62.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 101,681 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,834,000 after purchasing an additional 39,155 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

ECL has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $220.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Eleven research 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 stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL traded up $1.51 on Monday, reaching $229.01. 981,100 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,210,318. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $65.40 billion, a PE ratio of 42.41, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $224.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $203.99. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.88 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 42.22%.

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.