New York State Common Retirement Fund Reduces Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 5.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 447,810 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 25,790 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $88,823,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after acquiring an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Ecolab by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,078,000 after acquiring an additional 123,572 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd 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% in the 3rd quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $391,224,000 after acquiring an additional 85,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in Ecolab by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,173,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $368,142,000 after acquiring an additional 48,375 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Trading Up 0.5 %

NYSE ECL traded up $1.03 on Tuesday, hitting $220.34. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 252,536 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,206,577. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.72 and a 52-week high of $231.86. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $223.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $199.93. The firm has a market cap of $63.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.97, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The business had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on ECL. Citigroup increased their price objective on Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Ecolab in a research report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $230.47.

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.