Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Buys 111,564 Shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of Ecolab Inc. (NYSE:ECL) by 217.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 162,862 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 111,564 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.06% of Ecolab worth $38,761,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Ecolab during the second quarter worth $26,000. PSI Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. LRI Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the first quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, MFA Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Ecolab in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. 74.91% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, EVP Gregory B. Cook sold 3,811 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.33, for a total value of $950,196.63. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 8,080 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,014,586.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director David Maclennan bought 650 shares of Ecolab stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 2nd. The stock was bought at an average price of $240.41 per share, for a total transaction of $156,266.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 17,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,319,446.47. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.04% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on ECL. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Ecolab from $288.00 to $276.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Ecolab from $243.00 to $267.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Citigroup raised shares of Ecolab from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $267.00 to $265.00 in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Stifel Nicolaus raised Ecolab from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $233.00 to $283.00 in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Ecolab from $225.00 to $228.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Ecolab presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $262.21.

Ecolab Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE ECL opened at $251.44 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 1.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $71.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.56, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.13. Ecolab Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.72 and a 12 month high of $253.57. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $244.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $235.94.

Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.68 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.01. Ecolab had a return on equity of 21.65% and a net margin of 10.95%. The company had revenue of $3.99 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.03 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Ecolab Inc. will post 6.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Ecolab Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 17th will be paid a $0.57 dividend. This represents a $2.28 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.91%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 17th. Ecolab’s dividend payout ratio is currently 42.22%.

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.