Cetera Advisor Networks LLC Purchases 273 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Cetera Advisor Networks LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 0.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 42,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 273 shares during the period. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $8,005,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Citigroup Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 97.2% during the second quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 502,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $93,747,000 after acquiring an additional 247,525 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 6.9% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 17,468 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,261,000 after buying an additional 1,128 shares during the period. Burney Co. bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter valued at approximately $206,000. Humankind Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 48.5% in the second quarter. Humankind Investments LLC now owns 13,821 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,580,000 after buying an additional 4,513 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab by 2.5% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 594,164 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $110,918,000 after buying an additional 14,473 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 73.91% of the company’s stock.

Ecolab Stock Performance

NYSE ECL opened at $184.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $52.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.77, a PEG ratio of 2.69 and a beta of 1.04. Ecolab Inc. has a twelve month low of $140.13 and a twelve month high of $191.41. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $170.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $176.79. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ecolab from $186.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $187.00 to $193.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $175.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 2nd. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $194.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research report on Friday, September 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $190.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.