ICW Investment Advisors LLC Buys 138 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

ICW Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,577 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 138 shares during the period. ICW Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $1,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 150.0% during the 4th quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 135 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 11.2% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $299,000 after buying an additional 152 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $705,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Mission Wealth Management LP grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 5,314 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,054,000 after buying an additional 156 shares during the period. Finally, Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. grew its position in shares of Ecolab by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. Penobscot Investment Management Company Inc. now owns 4,890 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $970,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Ecolab Stock Down 0.3 %

ECL traded down $0.70 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $225.45. The company had a trading volume of 330,608 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,209,253. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $231.86. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $224.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $202.21. The company has a market cap of $64.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.94, a PEG ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.34 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.74 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The business’s revenue was up 5.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.88 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.01%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.60%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ECL shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $185.00 to $216.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $238.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They set a “peer perform” rating for the company. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $233.59.

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.