Townsquare Capital LLC Has $4 Million Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,775 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 736 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,999,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wolverine Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 45.5% in the 1st quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 8,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,028,000 after buying an additional 2,500 shares in the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 31.3% in the 1st quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 2,091 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $530,000 after buying an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 49.7% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 219,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,662,000 after buying an additional 72,913 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 50.5% in the 1st quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 290,238 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $73,581,000 after buying an additional 97,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AlphaCore Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Ecolab by 20.7% in the 1st quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 5,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,278,000 after buying an additional 864 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer upgraded shares of Ecolab to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $273.00 to $300.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays lowered their target price on Ecolab from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Wells Fargo & Company set a $260.00 target price on Ecolab and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Mizuho increased their target price on Ecolab from $285.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $290.71.

Ecolab Trading Up 1.1%

Ecolab stock opened at $272.83 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $267.21 and a 200-day moving average of $257.72. Ecolab Inc. has a one year low of $221.62 and a one year high of $274.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $77.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 1.06.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.01). Ecolab had a net margin of 13.59% and a return on equity of 22.52%. The firm had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 16th will be paid a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 16th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.71%.

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.