MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC Purchases New Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

MeadowBrook Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 250 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $50,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of ECL. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 203,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $34,501,000 after purchasing an additional 11,448 shares during the period. Concord Wealth Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 333.1% during the 3rd quarter. Concord Wealth Partners now owns 1,178 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $199,000 after acquiring an additional 906 shares during the period. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 28.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 322 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 7.3% during the 3rd quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 5,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,000,000 after acquiring an additional 403 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Ecolab by 62.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 101,681 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,834,000 after purchasing an additional 39,155 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $225.00 to $233.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $236.88.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE ECL traded up $1.51 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $229.01. 981,100 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,210,318. The stock has a market cap of $65.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.41, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.09. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $224.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $203.99. 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 0.99.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.01% and a return on equity of 20.56%. The business’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.88 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 42.22%.

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.