Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. Has $3.35 Million Stake in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. increased its holdings in Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 2.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 352 shares during the period. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc.’s holdings in Ecolab were worth $3,354,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ECL. AE Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Ecolab by 18.4% in the third quarter. AE Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,843 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $990,000 after buying an additional 906 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 5.1% during the third quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Cavalier Investments LLC raised its position in Ecolab by 3.6% during the third quarter. Cavalier Investments LLC now owns 3,040 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $515,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. raised its position in Ecolab by 1.0% during the third quarter. Mcdaniel Terry & Co. now owns 165,274 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $27,997,000 after purchasing an additional 1,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Moreno Evelyn V acquired a new position in Ecolab during the third quarter valued at approximately $231,000. 74.91% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Ecolab Stock Performance

Shares of Ecolab stock opened at $221.10 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $223.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $201.16. Ecolab Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.72 and a 1-year high of $231.86. The company has a market cap of $63.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.16, a PEG ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.10.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $3.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.92 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.27 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.42 EPS for the current year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 19th were issued 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 yield of 1.03%. Ecolab’s payout ratio is currently 47.60%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Ecolab from $240.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $212.00 to $227.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of Ecolab from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $200.00 to $220.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $184.00 to $232.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Ecolab from $237.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $230.47.

About Ecolab

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.