Waldron Private Wealth LLC Has $409,000 Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Waldron Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,059 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. First Personal Financial Services acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC bought a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Finally, DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $219.04 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $221.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $198.13. Ecolab Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.27 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.47.

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.