Sigma Planning Corp Decreases Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Sigma Planning Corp lowered its stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 57.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,065 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 4,191 shares during the period. Sigma Planning Corp’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,875,434,000 after buying an additional 387,545 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $470,078,000 after purchasing an additional 123,572 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 1.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,555,758 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $432,945,000 after purchasing an additional 41,545 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 3.9% during the third quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,294,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $391,224,000 after purchasing an additional 85,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Ecolab by 2.3% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,173,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $368,142,000 after purchasing an additional 48,375 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on ECL shares. Barclays raised shares of Ecolab from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $225.00 to $260.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 28th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Ecolab from $193.00 to $225.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the company from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $220.78 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $223.71 and its 200-day simple moving average is $200.43. Ecolab Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.72 and a 52-week high of $231.86. The firm has a market cap of $63.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last announced its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. Ecolab had a net margin of 8.96% and a return on equity of 19.36%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.27 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 19th were given a dividend of $0.57 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is presently 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.