Eagle Ridge Investment Management Sells 266 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Eagle Ridge Investment Management cut its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.4% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 18,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 266 shares during the period. Eagle Ridge Investment Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,666,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 117.9% during the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,669,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $282,185,000 after acquiring an additional 903,307 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 62.1% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 984,504 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $166,775,000 after purchasing an additional 377,010 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 50.2% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 687,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $116,433,000 after purchasing an additional 229,776 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE:ECL traded up $0.44 on Monday, reaching $221.54. 716,241 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,199,318. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $63.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10. Ecolab Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.72 and a 52 week high of $231.86. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $223.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $201.38.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.60%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ECL has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.