Segment Wealth Management LLC Has $424,000 Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Segment Wealth Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.2% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,671 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 55 shares during the quarter. Segment Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $424,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 164.7% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $867,000 after purchasing an additional 2,302 shares in the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth about $80,564,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in Ecolab by 64.5% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 2,898 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,136 shares during the period. Highview Capital Management LLC DE boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE now owns 8,752 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,051,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 6.8% during the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 13,004 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,052,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on ECL. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Ecolab from $277.00 to $273.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their target price on Ecolab from $270.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 price target on Ecolab and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $283.13.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of ECL opened at $261.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 1.32. The firm has a market cap of $74.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.46, a PEG ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.03. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $220.96 and a 52-week high of $273.69. The business’s fifty day moving average is $255.22 and its 200-day moving average is $250.59.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.50 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.50. Ecolab had a return on equity of 22.53% and a net margin of 13.41%. The company had revenue of $3.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.71 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.34 EPS. Ecolab’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.65 per share. 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%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director David Maclennan acquired 500 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 19,465 shares in the company, valued at $4,900,313.75. This trade represents a 2.64% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.