Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Shares Purchased by Strs Ohio

Strs Ohio boosted its position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 109,258 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,899 shares during the period. Strs Ohio’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $21,671,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Cornerstone Planning Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at about $25,000. First Personal Financial Services acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Live Oak Investment Partners acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on ECL. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Price Performance

Shares of ECL opened at $219.04 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $62.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10. 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 one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $221.97 and its 200-day moving average is $198.13.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.