David Maclennan Purchases 650 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Stock

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Director David Maclennan acquired 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $227.37 per share, for a total transaction of $147,790.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 17,111 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,890,528.07. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL stock traded up $4.06 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $233.01. 1,218,092 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,210,443. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $224.79 and its 200-day moving average is $203.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $233.30. The stock has a market cap of $66.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The company had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.74 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.98%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Ecolab by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,182,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,598,240,000 after buying an additional 305,039 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Ecolab by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,078,000 after purchasing an additional 123,572 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $432,945,000 after buying an additional 41,545 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in Ecolab by 3.9% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $391,224,000 after acquiring an additional 85,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its position in Ecolab by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,264,757 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $449,215,000 after purchasing an additional 91,547 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $236.88.

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.