Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Raises Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,781 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 53 shares during the quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $959,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 164.7% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,700 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $867,000 after buying an additional 2,302 shares during the last quarter. Highview Capital Management LLC DE raised its position 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 acquiring an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at about $830,000. Allstate Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,790,000. Finally, Allianz SE purchased a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $711,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on ECL shares. Barclays lowered their target price on Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $307.00 to $303.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 price target on shares of Ecolab and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of 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 issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $288.33.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $271.93 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.32 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $220.96 and a 1-year high of $274.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $77.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.03. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $266.55 and its 200-day simple moving average is $255.73.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 17th were issued a $0.65 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 17th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David Maclennan bought 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was bought at an average price of $251.75 per share, with a total value of $125,875.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 19,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,900,313.75. This represents a 2.64% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Ecolab

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.