RWA Wealth Partners LLC Decreases Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

RWA Wealth Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,217 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 96 shares during the period. RWA Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $440,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Ecolab by 1.7% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,877,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,875,434,000 after acquiring an additional 387,545 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Ecolab by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,774,960 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $470,078,000 after purchasing an additional 123,572 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in Ecolab by 1.7% in the 3rd 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 period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Ecolab by 2.3% in the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,173,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $368,142,000 after purchasing an additional 48,375 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ECL. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $211.00 to $227.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Wolfe Research began coverage on Ecolab in a report on Friday, March 1st. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $238.00 price objective on shares of Ecolab in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $230.47.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of ECL stock opened at $219.82 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $223.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $200.56. 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 one year low of $156.72 and a one year high of $231.86. The firm has a market cap of $62.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 19.36% and a net margin of 8.96%. The company had revenue of $3.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.92 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.27 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were paid a $0.57 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 18th. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.04%. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.60%.

Ecolab 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.