abrdn plc Acquires 110,835 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

abrdn plc increased its holdings in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,001,253 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 110,835 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $198,599,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Ecolab by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $802,069,000 after buying an additional 2,023,685 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth about $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ecolab by 65,845.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,835,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $267,237,000 after buying an additional 1,833,139 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors acquired a new stake in Ecolab during the first quarter worth about $304,475,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in Ecolab by 117.9% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $282,185,000 after buying an additional 903,307 shares in the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. 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 MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:ECL traded down $1.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $218.16. The company had a trading volume of 2,586,604 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,014,656. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $223.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $199.13. 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 one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The company has a market capitalization of $62.37 billion, a PE ratio of 45.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.05%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

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.