Fifth Third Bancorp Has $39.46 Million Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Fifth Third Bancorp reduced its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 198,932 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 7,958 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp owned approximately 0.07% of Ecolab worth $39,458,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,040,000. Vest Financial LLC increased its stake in Ecolab by 39.6% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 167,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $33,128,000 after acquiring an additional 47,351 shares during the period. First PREMIER Bank bought a new position in Ecolab during the 4th quarter worth $2,836,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its stake in Ecolab by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 189,675 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,131,000 after acquiring an additional 5,015 shares during the period. Finally, abrdn plc increased its stake in Ecolab by 8.7% during the 3rd quarter. abrdn plc now owns 890,418 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $150,837,000 after acquiring an additional 71,206 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America upgraded Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $238.00 price target on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $222.19.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.4 %

ECL traded down $0.86 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $230.90. 820,956 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,215,010. The firm has a market capitalization of $66.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $216.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $193.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The firm’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 47.60%.

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.