Snowden Capital Advisors LLC Has $826,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Snowden Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,517 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 90 shares during the period. Snowden Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $826,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $521,399,000. Winslow Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 98.6% in the fourth quarter. Winslow Capital Management LLC now owns 1,427,083 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $334,394,000 after acquiring an additional 708,432 shares in the last quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its stake in Ecolab by 206.7% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 767,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $179,749,000 after acquiring an additional 516,970 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,129,058 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $733,201,000 after acquiring an additional 514,944 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth approximately $80,564,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on shares of Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $282.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $261.22 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $74.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.05. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $246.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $247.72. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $220.96 and a 12 month high of $273.69.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $3.71 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.34 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.33%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total value of $228,868.72. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,140 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,911.80. The trade was a 17.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David Maclennan purchased 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $251.75 per share, for a total transaction of $125,875.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 19,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. 0.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.