Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Boosts Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,464 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 70 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $489,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Stonebrook Private Inc. bought a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth about $270,000. PGGM Investments raised its stake in Ecolab by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 25,267 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,012,000 after buying an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter valued at $679,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,428,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Ecolab by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 6,805 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,350,000 after buying an additional 57 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. UBS Group raised their price objective on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $221.67 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.38 billion, a PE ratio of 46.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.72 and a 12-month high of $231.86. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $224.02 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $201.77.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.27 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

Ecolab 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.