Cardinal Capital Management Boosts Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Cardinal Capital Management boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.1% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 37,917 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 425 shares during the period. Ecolab accounts for 1.4% of Cardinal Capital Management’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Cardinal Capital Management’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $7,099,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 22,118,829 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,661,330,000 after purchasing an additional 883,380 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 11,327,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,875,020,000 after purchasing an additional 96,475 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,229,633 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,864,760,000 after purchasing an additional 141,180 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 58.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $802,069,000 after purchasing an additional 2,023,685 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust raised its stake in Ecolab by 7.2% in the 4th quarter. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust now owns 5,218,044 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $759,538,000 after acquiring an additional 351,617 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Citigroup raised their target price on Ecolab from $200.00 to $207.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on Ecolab from $172.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Ecolab from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. TheStreet raised Ecolab from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Ecolab from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $193.86.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.9 %

ECL stock opened at $175.78 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Ecolab Inc. has a 12-month low of $131.04 and a 12-month high of $191.41. The stock has a market cap of $50.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.77, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.01. The business’s 50-day moving average is $183.64 and its 200 day moving average is $174.66.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.21 by $0.03. Ecolab had a return on equity of 18.33% and a net margin of 7.96%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.86 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.10 EPS. Ecolab’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 5.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, October 16th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 19th will be issued a $0.53 dividend. This represents a $2.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 18th. Ecolab’s payout ratio is 51.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Ecolab news, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $183.73 per share, with a total value of $119,424.50. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 15,071 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,768,994.83. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Ecolab Company Profile

Ecolab Inc provides water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services in the United States and internationally. The company operates through Global Industrial, Global Institutional & Specialty, and Global Healthcare & Life Sciences segments. 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.