Handelsbanken Fonder AB Has $32.82 Million Stock Position in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB lowered its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 6.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 165,473 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 11,947 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB owned 0.06% of Ecolab worth $32,822,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after purchasing an additional 387,545 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew 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 worth $1,864,760,000 after purchasing an additional 141,180 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew 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 worth $802,069,000 after purchasing an additional 2,023,685 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,611,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $761,451,000 after purchasing an additional 64,844 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.0% during the 2nd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 3,730,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $696,424,000 after purchasing an additional 144,420 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ECL has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Ecolab in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $260.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Ecolab from $230.00 to $240.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $230.47.

Ecolab Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of ECL opened at $218.16 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $223.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $199.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 1.30. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.72 and a 52-week high of $231.86. The company has a market cap of $62.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.54, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.27 EPS. Analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.05%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

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.