Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) Receives $244.06 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $249.13.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on ECL shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $251.00 to $272.00 in a research note on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $227.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 1st. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $216.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday.

Ecolab Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $237.19 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. Ecolab has a 12-month low of $156.72 and a 12-month high of $249.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.92, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $239.80 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $226.90.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.67 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.03 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 10.95% and a return on equity of 21.65%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.24 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Ecolab will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.57 per share. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 42.22%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Ecolab

In related news, Director Arthur J. Higgins sold 4,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $227.52, for a total transaction of $1,023,840.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 25,548 shares in the company, valued at $5,812,680.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.04% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Ecolab

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth about $365,420,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 1st quarter valued at about $390,687,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $110,261,000 after purchasing an additional 552,992 shares during the last quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP acquired a new position in Ecolab in the 4th quarter valued at about $91,178,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,182,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,598,240,000 after purchasing an additional 305,039 shares during the last quarter. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.