Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Reduces Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado decreased its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 41,149 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 731 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $7,682,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of ECL. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its position in Ecolab by 2,145,367.3% during the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 184,660,374 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,474,245,000 after buying an additional 184,651,767 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Ecolab by 58.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,510,224 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $802,069,000 after buying an additional 2,023,685 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Ecolab during the fourth quarter worth $276,712,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Ecolab by 65,845.5% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,835,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $267,237,000 after buying an additional 1,833,139 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors purchased a new position in Ecolab during the first quarter worth $304,475,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 73.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Trading Up 2.7 %

Shares of ECL opened at $183.86 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $170.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $176.58. The stock has a market cap of $52.43 billion, a PE ratio of 42.66, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.04. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $140.13 and a 12 month high of $191.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 0.92.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 31st. The basic materials company reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.02. Ecolab had a return on equity of 18.81% and a net margin of 8.18%. The company had revenue of $3.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.99 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 5.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ECL has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $165.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $170.00 to $195.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 20th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $174.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $194.64.

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.