Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Stock Holdings Increased by CoreCap Advisors LLC

CoreCap Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 61.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,690 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $396,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PFW Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $1,262,000. Corundum Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 47.9% in the 4th quarter. Corundum Group Inc. now owns 7,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,769,000 after purchasing an additional 2,444 shares during the last quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Ecolab in the fourth quarter worth $246,000. Eastern Bank increased its position in Ecolab by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 165,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,771,000 after buying an additional 2,853 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Ecolab by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,656,000 after buying an additional 1,303 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, EVP Machiel Duijser sold 5,721 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $264.04, for a total value of $1,510,572.84. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 3,774 shares in the company, valued at $996,486.96. This trade represents a 60.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director David Maclennan acquired 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 19,465 shares in the company, valued at $4,900,313.75. The trade was a 2.64 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985. 0.04% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ECL. UBS Group increased their price objective on Ecolab from $257.00 to $280.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $305.00 to $275.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $270.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 20th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $282.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $252.78 on Friday. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $220.96 and a 12 month high of $273.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79. The company has a market capitalization of $71.70 billion, a PE ratio of 34.25, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $247.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $247.61.

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. The business had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.71 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.50% and a net margin of 13.42%. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be given a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.33%.

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.