Bank of America Corp DE Grows Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,517,118 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,911 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned 0.89% of Ecolab worth $589,811,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Barclays PLC grew its position in Ecolab by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 796,170 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $203,285,000 after acquiring an additional 69,142 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 5.9% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 301,591 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $77,005,000 after purchasing an additional 16,747 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 8.7% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,627,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $381,552,000 after purchasing an additional 129,635 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 1,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $420,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in Ecolab by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 9,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,339,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In related news, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $264.51 per share, with a total value of $105,804.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,911.80. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock valued at $4,637,985 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $254.91 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $72.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $248.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $247.68. Ecolab Inc. has a 1 year low of $220.96 and a 1 year high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.50. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. The company had revenue of $3.70 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.34 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th were paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.02%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ECL shares. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Redburn Atlantic lowered Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $282.47.

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.