Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS Lowers Stock Holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,586 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,542 shares during the period. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $12,556,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 2,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Invesco LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Invesco LLC now owns 1,067 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $250,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Palumbo Wealth Management LLC now owns 859 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $201,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. World Equity Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. World Equity Group Inc. now owns 1,217 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $285,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Perfromance Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $726,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Ecolab from $306.00 to $294.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $263.00 to $280.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. StockNews.com upgraded Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Ecolab from $295.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on Ecolab from $290.00 to $305.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 12th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $288.00.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.5 %

ECL stock opened at $250.79 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.05 and a 1-year high of $273.69. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $254.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $250.03. The firm has a market cap of $71.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.98, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.14.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 11th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.81. Ecolab had a net margin of 13.42% and a return on equity of 22.50%. Research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 7.54 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.65 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 18th. This represents a $2.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 35.23%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In other news, Director David Maclennan purchased 400 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 13th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $264.51 per share, for a total transaction of $105,804.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 18,767 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,964,059.17. The trade was a 2.18 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jennifer J. Bradway sold 856 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $267.37, for a total transaction of $228,868.72. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 4,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,911.80. This represents a 17.13 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 17,435 shares of company stock worth $4,637,985 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

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.