FFT Wealth Management LLC Makes New Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

FFT Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $249,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the period. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 18.6% in the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 38,730 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,561,000 after buying an additional 6,078 shares during the period. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $281,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 63.7% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 168,979 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,625,000 after buying an additional 65,757 shares during the period. Finally, Mission Wealth Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 5,158 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $874,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research started coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $233.65.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE ECL traded up $1.01 on Thursday, hitting $225.99. 138,288 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,202,173. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $224.37 and a 200 day moving average of $202.37. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.72 and a twelve month high of $231.86. The company has a market capitalization of $64.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.41, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 20.56% and a net margin of 10.01%. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.22%.

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.