Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Raises Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 14.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,884 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 233 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Ecolab by 1.7% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $470,078,000 after purchasing an additional 123,572 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $432,945,000 after acquiring an additional 41,545 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Ecolab by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $391,224,000 after purchasing an additional 85,985 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Ecolab by 2.3% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,173,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $368,142,000 after purchasing an additional 48,375 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on ECL. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group upped their price target on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 11th. Citigroup raised their price target on Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Ecolab has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE:ECL traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $219.56. 139,685 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,199,184. The business has a 50-day moving average of $223.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $200.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.72 and a 12-month high of $231.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $62.77 billion, a PE ratio of 45.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.27 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

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.