Signal Advisors Wealth LLC Sells 279 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Signal Advisors Wealth LLC trimmed its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.7% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,922 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 279 shares during the quarter. Signal Advisors Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $487,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC grew its position in Ecolab by 1.9% during the 4th quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 2,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $505,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 859 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $201,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. World Equity Group Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. World Equity Group Inc. now owns 1,217 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $285,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Belpointe Asset Management LLC now owns 2,980 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $755,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 4,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,012,000 after buying an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target 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. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price 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. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $302.00 to $285.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 21st. 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.13.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.1%

NYSE:ECL opened at $267.29 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $75.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.22, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.03. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $220.96 and a 1-year high of $273.69. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $249.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $249.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79.

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

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 17th will be issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.33%.

Insider Activity at Ecolab

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.50% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.