Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Sold by Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC

Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC cut its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 12.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,177 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 160 shares during the period. Wilbanks Smith & Thomas Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $233,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of ECL. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Ecolab by 117.9% in the 3rd 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 during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 19,062.1% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 555,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. 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 period. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 62.1% in the third quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 984,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,775,000 after purchasing an additional 377,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Ecolab by 50.2% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 687,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $116,433,000 after purchasing an additional 229,776 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Mizuho upgraded Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Ecolab from $232.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $256.00 to $257.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 price objective for the company. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $227.49 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $224.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $202.54. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $65.04 billion, a PE ratio of 42.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be given a $0.57 dividend. 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 1.00%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

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.