Brokerages Set Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) PT at $230.47

Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the eighteen research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $230.47.

ECL has been the topic of several analyst reports. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, April 12th. Barclays upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $225.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of Ecolab from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $221.10 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $223.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $200.94. Ecolab has a 52-week low of $156.72 and a 52-week high of $231.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.27 earnings per share. Ecolab’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Ecolab will post 6.42 earnings per share for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ECL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth approximately $365,420,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 903,307 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Ecolab by 19,062.1% in the 4th 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 period. Findlay Park Partners LLP acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,178,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after buying an additional 387,545 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

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.