Power Corp of Canada Buys New Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Power Corp of Canada acquired a new position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 1,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $247,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 1,406.3% during the second quarter. Eagle Bay Advisors LLC now owns 241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the period. Almanack Investment Partners LLC. acquired a new stake in Ecolab in the third quarter valued at about $36,000. Zions Bancorporation N.A. lifted its position in Ecolab by 39.8% in the third quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 267 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares during the period. CoreCap Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Ecolab during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in shares of Ecolab by 56.0% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 298 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.76% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $159.23 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.30 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.68, a P/E/G ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s fifty day moving average is $155.40 and its two-hundred day moving average is $152.04. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $131.04 and a 52-week high of $185.50.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $1.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 7.69% and a return on equity of 18.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.28 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 4.93 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 21st will be given a $0.53 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 20th. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.33%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is 55.50%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Larry L. Berger sold 4,404 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $162.95, for a total transaction of $717,631.80. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,442 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,027,423.90. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.04% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ECL. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $164.00 to $166.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised shares of Ecolab from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $185.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 15th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $140.00 to $164.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 15th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $158.00 to $163.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, January 12th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $173.13.

Ecolab Profile

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Ecolab, Inc engages in the provision of products and services in the field of water, hygiene, and energy. It operates through the following segments: Global Industrial, Global Institutional & Specialty, Global Energy & Life Science, and Other. The Global Industrial segment consists of the water, food and beverage, paper, and downstream operating segments.