Tyche Wealth Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Tyche Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 4,012 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $796,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. United Bank raised its stake in Ecolab by 2.7% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 4,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $733,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. raised its stake in Ecolab by 7.6% in the first quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 6,172 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,090,000 after buying an additional 434 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 23.0% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $334,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 6.7% in the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 1,707 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $301,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. raised its stake in shares of Ecolab by 17.1% in the first quarter. Candriam Luxembourg S.C.A. now owns 73,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $12,920,000 after purchasing an additional 10,676 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Piper Sandler started coverage on Ecolab in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup raised their target price on Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Bank of America raised Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of ECL stock traded up $1.34 on Wednesday, hitting $220.38. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,733,417 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,028,096. 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 Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.72 and a fifty-two week high of $231.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $222.38 and its 200-day moving average price is $198.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.00, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.27 EPS. Ecolab’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate 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 given a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 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.